True Friendship
by ShivaVixen
Summary: "Yesterday brought the Beginning, tomorrow brings the end, and somewhere in the middle, we became the best of friends." Author Unknown. In Need and Deed Sequel. Events are in motion that will bring together a crew that once became a legend. Crew fic.
1. Prologue, Spock Prime

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek rights. This is me having fun in a genre I knew next to nothing about.**

**Note: This picks right up where In Need and Deed left off.**

"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend." ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<p>

* * *

><p>True Friendship- Spock Prime<p>

He'd been too late to do anything. Too late to save the Romulan home planet, too late to stop Nero from going back in time.

Too late to do anything but follow but hope and pray that he could do _something_ to stop the _Narada_. That the luck that had gotten him and his friends through so many dangers had not run out.

He'd been quick to cloak his small craft when he finally did emerge, and just as quick to make his way to Vulcan. He could hide there, learn what was going on.

At least, that was the plan.

Three days after he had arrived and hidden himself in an old dwelling that had been long abandoned, he was found.

"I wasn't aware anyone was living in these dwellings." The voice was young, slightly sharp in tone, but Spock recognized it. Turning around he found himself face to face with a young James T. Kirk, with piercing blue eyes that seemed almost unreal.

"James T. Kirk, How did you find me?" The Young man frowned slightly, and Spock felt the world shift, along with the realization that perhaps he should have thought more on what he'd do if he met someone he knew- but then again, James Kirk wasn't just anyone. (and his control had slipped, more than was proper, but Jim was right there, _alive_.)

"How do you know my name? Who are you?" (And completely suspicious of him. Feeling hurt that this Jim didn't know him was illogical)

"I have been, and always shall be, your friend." An old, old promise, that almost didn't seem enough. But how did he explain who he was-

"_Spock?_" Jim's blue eyes widened (he had to differ them in his mind somehow, but he didn't know how) and Spock found his control at last, forcing himself to think on the most logical course of action. This Jim was young, probably had already hacked the Kobayashi Maru, if his guess of his friend's doppelganger's age was right. (But why was he on Vulcan?)

"From a different Timeline, yes . . . it would be easier to show you." (and he could find out more about this reality, this Jim, find a way to separate the two Jim's in his mind.)

"Go ahead, then." The emotional transference goes both ways, and he doesn't have a lot of control anymore once he gets a glimpse of this James Kirk.

George Kirk died after naming his son, Winona Kirk was absent, Sam had left, and the step-dad didn't care much for Jim- as long as they stayed out of each other's way, they were fine; Tarsus IV, where his alternate and Jim met, Jim's instincts getting both of them through the ordeal; meeting Scotty; A year of recovery on Vulcan, before both enlisted in Starfleet- his Jim had spent years recovering before joining Starfleet at 18, and had graduated in four years because he wanted to experience everything.

Meeting McCoy, much, much earlier than before, the messy divorce, but McCoy got Joanna this time, wasn't quite as hurtful with his words, but still argued with his own alternate (and how illogical was it that he was pleased to hear 'Damn Hobgoblin' again?) . . . Jim hauling a thirteen year old cadet with a thick accent out of a fight, tutoring a familiar face in logistics, word games with a girl with long black hair . . . but this Jim was fiercer, far more feral than the one he had lost, years and years ago.

Spock's bond with his Jim had taken years of good things and bad things to develop and strengthen, because they had been adults and set somewhat in their ways.

The bond this Jim shared with his counterpart had formed when they were young, in a time when both needed it for survival.

He pulled back out of the meld, quickly filing his discoveries into their place so he could go through at a later time, and blinked as Jim took a shuddering gasp and stepped away. Spock hesitated in following- it was not his Jim to comfort.

"Our lives were changed, then?" There was no censure or anger, just a simple statement. But Spock still felt it like a slap.

"I'm sorry, Jim . . ."

"It wasn't your fault, Spock, don't apologize." Jim straightened. "Now what?"

"I need a way to find out more information on what happened to Nero- Your father only delayed him, he will return."

"You also need a new name, Spock . . . you need to be able to blend in."

"A council Elder will be able to officiate a false identity . . . As for a name, I think I have one that might be suitable- this is not the first time I have ended up in the past."

"I know someone who can help."

* * *

><p>It took them two hours to get back to town, and Spock followed him to an office.<p>

"T'Pring, is Elder T'Pau recieving visitors?" Spock would have gaped as he recognized the woman wearing a black and white dress and holding a data padd. More astonishing was the almost cordial discussion between the two- in his timeline, T'Pring had almost gotten them both killed.

"Yes, James." T'Pring nodded. "Do you need to speak with her?"

"Yes, T'Pring, it's an urgent matter." She nodded and entered the room, a moment later she exited and nodded again.

"She'll see you right now, James." T'Pring looked at him with curiosity and Spock gave her a short nod.

T'Pau listened to them both, expression neutral, and verified it with a mind meld. Near the end, she sent James out of the room to speak with Spock in private.

"You are capable of great danger, son of Sarek. You have vowed to stop Nero, but what will you do after? Can you truly leave this universe to potential dangers you are aware of?"

"I do not know, Elder, in my time you never took a council position, and James was not adopted by my family. Things have changed drastically, and my knowledge would be insufficient." Spock closed his eyes. "I will leave things alone, become a hermit if I must, but I cannot guarantee anything."

"I will not ask you to." In moments, his identity as 'Selek' was sealed. "Will you and James dine with me? It is time for the mid-day meal."

"I cannot speak for Jim, but I would find it agreeable." 'Selek' exited the room, and almost stopped short. T'Pring and Jim were both leaning over a console, speaking softly.

"It's not noticeable, but if you make this move here-" Jim pointed with a stylus.

"I see, this is a misdirection technique." T'Pring tapped a couple keys. "Humans like to be logically illogical."

"We like mysteries, so we do our best to be difficult to figure out." T'Pring finished, and Jim smiled. "You've become better at this, T'Pring."

"If I have, it is because I have a knowlegable instructor." She gave him a slight nod.

"It is time for the mid-day meal." T'Pau spoke and both straightened, turning to look. "Will you join us, James?"

"I shall, Elder T'Pau."

"And you, T'Pring?"

"I accept your invitation, Elder." T'Pring looked at 'Selek' in brief curiosity, before they all went into the small sitting area with a replicator. T'Pau introduced him to T'Pring, explaining that she had taken on the young woman as an apprentice to deal with her many duties. 'Selek' wasted little time in asking what they had been doing.

"James introduced me to a fascinating aspect of Terran culture regarding mysteries, riddles and Mazes. He has been helping me expand my knowledge." T'Pring explained. "Today, he showed me a program of a labyrinth that required one to solve riddles to make it through. Some of the riddles are highly illogical, but once faced with the answer, make perfect sense."

Lunch passed with 'Selek' becoming slightly more relaxed. This T'Pring was still logical and beautiful, but interested in Earth culture- perhaps this time, if his counter-part went through Pon far, he would not end up almost killing his captain.

After Lunch, Jim took him back to his childhood home to talk. And Selek realized he had not yet asked Jim why he was on Vulcan.

"Medical Leave- I came to Vulcan to recuperate from a attack, and reassure _Ko-mehk_ I was alright. I leave for earth in three days." Jim studied him for a moment. "Admiral Archer is already on his way here. He'll be willing to help you out."

"What about you, Jim?"

"I'll be there if you need me, but I doubt they'll let a lieutenant commander get too close to a security issue." Jim gave a small smile. "You need to start calling me James." Selek stiffened at the sudden push at formality. "All the other Vulcans call me James, Selek, only Spock calls me Jim, and you have to be able to blend in." Logical, but Selek just couldn't imagine calling his best friend by his formal name.

Then again, this wasn't the best friend he had gone through so much with.

"You are correct, I shall do my best." He was truly alone, the last of the seven that had been a miracle creating/finding team. He was surrounded by people he once knew but were oh so different than he'd ever remembered them being.

A warm steady hand rested on his shoulder, and he looked into bright (but not quite right) blue eyes. "In Public, Mr. Spock, you'll have to call me James, I don't care what you call me in private." The hand gently squeezed his shoulder, and 'Selek' felt an irrational sense of comfort from the gesture.

Because Jim, no matter where or when, could always see right through him, and never blamed him for having emotions. 'Selek' would not have Jim's constant presence at his back (he had not had that for a long time) but he would have his support when needed.

It would have to be enough.

* * *

><p><strong>And the prologue starts with Spock Prime! I discovered that in the Animated Original Series, Spock went back in time and took the name 'Selek' to hide his identity from his younger self. (I have seen variations of this name being spelled, this is the one from TV(dot)com, and the Memory Alpha, so I'm sticking with this).<strong>

**Now, as you can see, I'm not going to do this as a 100 percent copy of the movie (I'm sure you've all seen it and don't need me to type it all up again) and while I'll keep a couple lines/quotes from the movie, things will happen differently. Remember, this is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. Things will be different.**

**Next Chapter is in Uhura's point of view.**


	2. Chapter 1, Nyota Uhura

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek rights. This is me having fun in a genre I knew next to nothing about.**

**Note: This chapter will go back and forth between present and past events- if the transition isn't clear enough, please let me know.**

**Umm . . . I managed to forget it last time, but the stardate for the prologue is 2256. I'll go back and edit that . . . eventually . . . (oops!)**

"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"The language of friendship is not words but meanings." ~Henry David Thoreau<p>

* * *

><p>True Friendship- Nyota Uhura<p>

_Stardate 2258 (Present)_

Fourth year Cadet Nyota Uhura was starting to wish her shift would end. Listening to Klingon chatter wasn't the most appealing thing in the universe, and she still had to finish studying for the Kobayashi Maru exam tomorrow.

It was the most difficult exam, no one ever got an 'A', and the passing grade was usually a 'C'. The exam was proctored by one of her Xenolinguistics professors, Lt. Commander Spock, and a logistics teacher that had half her class swooning, Commander Kirk.

As the Klingon chatter turned to the weather, Uhura let her mind drift over the interesting puzzle that was Kirk and Spock. She found them both attractive (as did most of the cadets) but puzzling. According to her advanced Vulcan class (which was taught by an old Vulcan named Selek) Vulcans did not like it when someone touched them or got too close into their personal space, and were very reserved, even with family.

And yet, more than once she had seen Kirk sling an arm around Spock's shoulders as they talked, or Spock almost smiling at something Kirk was telling him.

There was a large betting pool on when the two would come out of the closet, on that note. Uhura was pretty sure her roommate, Gaila, had a hand in forming said betting pool.

Uhura was also well aware the two weren't gay. She'd asked Professor Selek if that was possible, had gotten a raised eyebrow, and was informed that on Vulcan, sex was an act of procreation, not pleasure, and it would be illogical, and a waste of efficiency, for a Vulcan to not only have sex for sex sake, but to have it with a partner of the same gender (as it would be impossible for procreation to occur). He then informed her that humans were too used to defining love with carnal actions when the emotion meant so much more. Vulcans valued minds, not bodies. (Uhura still had the feeling that he'd given her a 'slap on the wrist' verbally, for asking the question in the first place.)

But even with that, their interactions were fascinating to watch. Uhura could still remember how she met Commander Kirk- though he'd been a lieutenant commander then, and she hadn't found that out until after she'd met him.

* * *

><p><em>Stardate 2255 to 2256<em>

At age 16, Uhura had just completed her first year, and had finished with a rather grueling end-of-year training course (in which seven cadets washed out), when her group's shuttle broke down in Riverside-middle-of-nowhere, Iowa. With nothing to do, the cadets were allowed to go into town while it got fixed. Half the group went to go see a movie at an old, almost rundown, theater, the other half went to the only bar for miles.

Because of the varying ages and cultures, Starfleet and the Federation had agreed on a fairly simple rule for the consumption of alcohol. Basically, if you were in Starfleet, you were old enough to drink.

So Uhura had made her way to the bar, planning on only one drink and ignoring offers to dance. She liked to people watch (and listen) and this was a good chance to practice her skills.

That was the plan, anyway. However, petite cadet Lester pulled her (literally) into conversation in one of the booths that was already crowded with a few other girls.

"Do I even want to know?" Uhura had asked, earning a giggle from one of the girls.

"See the cutie in the booth over there? Blond, blue eyes . . ." Lester pointed, and Uhura blinked. The guy had a black motorcycle jacket and a completely bored air. "We need you to talk to him."

"Me, why me?" Uhura blinked.

"Because, you need to have some fun."

"And he already shot down Jan." One of the other girls added, and got kicked in the shin.

Uhura weighed her options. Talk to a guy that looked like a typical bad biker boy, or get stuck listening to these girls talk all night.

Mystery guy won by a landside, she didn't like Lester. She slipped through the crowd, dodging a couple of male cadets that had more testosterone than brains, and finally came up to the booth. "Excuse me, do you mind if I join you?" The man looked up, and Uhura was struck by how blue the guy's eyes were. "The other girls won't stop harassing me if I don't ask, and if you say no they'll harass me for the story and the same details. I'm out of places to hide." The guy laughed.

"Now how can I say no to a lady in distress? Go right ahead, cadet-?"

"Uhura."

"No first name?"

"Not that I want to give right now."

"Fair enough, call me Jim." He shifted to sit straighter and flagged down a waitress. "So, Uhura, what's your major?"

"Xenolinguistics, it's the study of-"

"Alien languages and culture." He finished with a grin. "I'm Starfleet, too. Computer engineering and Tactics- I'm just on leave."

"Oh." Uhura blushed. How many times had she been told not to judge a book by its cover? "Sorry, I just thought . . ."

"You were talking to a hick?" She nodded. "Good, that means I can still blend in- it's always an advantage to get underestimated, Uhura."

"But it's embarrassing to be the one that does the underestimating."

"True enough." He shot a glance at the table of girl cadets. "How long are you going to be here?"

"For about another hour, I think."

"Alright, then I can buy you a drink and teach you a drinking word game." Uhura blinked as he grinned. "My brother studied xenolinguistics; I picked up a few things- namely Klingon, Vulcan, Andorian and Orion, though I'm not fluent in any of them. Besides, this gives us something to do."

The game he taught her had been originally an Andorian children's word game, but had been changed so one could use words from other languages as long as they were similar in sound (first syllable of the new word matching the last syllable of the old) and meaning (which was difficult as it required a very intense knowledge of the language). The more mistakes you made, the more difficult the game became.

"You're a nice guy, aren't you?" Uhura finished laughing at Jim's latest mistake. He raised an eyebrow.

"What makes you say that? For all you know I'm just pulling you into a false sense of security." Uhura blinked as he shifted from 'nice guy' to 'wolf' in a blink, catching her wrist in a strong grip.

It should have scared her, a sixteen year old girl in a bar; it was supposed to scare her. But Uhura wasn't the type to run from danger, not after the past month, not _ever_. She returned the grip and the dangerous smile (as best as she could).

"Weren't you the one who said not to underestimate an opponent?" For a long moment, neither let go, and then Jim's face melted into an amused smile. With a soft chuckle, he gently squeezed her wrist and let go.

"Well played, Cadet. Well played." He relaxed back, and Uhura relaxed as well, throwing him a smile as he showed his approval. "You're definitely going to be someone to watch . . ." There was something else in what he said, but Uhura couldn't figure out _what_. And then the two resumed their game as if nothing happened.

Captain Pike came to collect them when they went over curfew, and Uhura had to bid a hasty goodbye and thank you to Jim as she left. It was only later that she realized she hadn't gotten his last name.

When the next school year started, she'd been running late for class (seething at Gaila for turning off her alarm clock) and slammed into someone wearing academy instructor black, sending them both to the ground.

"I'm sorry, so sorry si- Jim!" She had gaped, in shock, as she recognized the face. "You're a teacher?" Jim had laughed, echoed by someone else.

"You should remove yourself from his person and refer to him as Commander or Instructor Kirk." A flat voice informed her, and she'd glanced up to see Instructor Spock with a raised eyebrow. Behind him was an older cadet laughing. She'd jumped up to her feet pretty quickly.

"I'm sorry, sir, I was just . . ."

"It's alright, Cadet, no harm done. McCoy, stop laughing like a hyena." Jim had stood up. "I'm Commander Jim Kirk."

"Second year Cadet Nyota Uhura, sir, I'm sorry I ran into you- I'm late for class."

"It's alright Cadet, just pay more attention. McCoy, I told you to stop laughing!"

She'd seen Kirk around after that, but she always got the feeling that there was something being said that she couldn't translate.

* * *

><p><em>Present<em>

Uhura came out of her reverie with a wince as the channel frequency she was listening to gave a loud alarm. "**Romulan Prisoners have escaped; repeat Romulan Prisoners have escaped and taken back their ship.**" The message repeated with different amounts of information, and Uhura had to scramble to alert and copy the transmission. An entire Klingon force was destroyed, by one ship.

Unfortunately, even though she was a senior cadet and best in class, that wasn't enough to make the officer on duty treat it as something worth noticing.

"Who cares what those Klingon and Romulan bastards do to each other? It's nowhere near us, Cadet, don't fuss your pretty head."

Steaming, Uhura left. She made it to the next floor before she froze in mid-step.

She had been monitoring the frequencies closest to the shared border between the Klingons and the quadrant that housed not only earth but Vulcan and a few other major federation planets as well. Uhura made to turn and go back, but remembered the officer's attitude.

_I'm being silly; it could just be that they were relaying the message to all parts of the Klingon Empire._ But even that didn't make her sense of unease dissipate. She went down another floor to where the navigation classrooms and chartrooms were. _Maybe it wouldn't hurt to look at a map._ She knew the basic layout of the federation occupied space, as well as that of the three empires that bordered it, but she couldn't say off the top of her head where exactly the lines were.

The chartroom was already in use by another student, one she knew by sight and reputation, but had never actually spoken to.

"Ah, are you needing ze charts?" the boy blinked at her as he tilted his head to the side, and Uhura had the strangest urge to giggle- he reminded her of a puppy.

"Yes, I need help locating a Klingon Prison colony . . . could you help me?" As much as she hated admitting it, she had no idea where to even start looking for the chart.

"_Da_! I am wery good at nawigation!" He beamed, and went to a console. "Vere is zes area, do you know ze name?"

"Yes." She gave it to him. "I'm Uhura, by the way. Nyota Uhura."

"Chekov, Pavel." He grinned. "Ah, here it is- it is almost 18 hours avay at top varp speed from Wulcan, and 20 hours from Earth- vat's vrong?" Uhura had paled.

"Chekov, do you know of any officer who'd listen to us without saying we're exaggerating?"

"_Da_, Commander Kirk, or Meester Spock."

"Make a copy of that chart and let's find them. I have a really bad feeling about this." Chekov obeyed.

* * *

><p>Kirk had an advanced logistics class, but it had already let out as they arrived. Uhura grabbed one of the people exiting the room.<p>

"Where's Commander Kirk?"

"Err, I don't know . . ."

"I do." This guy was older than her, she recognized him from her xeno-ethics class. "Why do you need to know?"

"We need his input on something, it's really important."

"Okay, Come on." As they started moving again, the guy introduced himself. "I'm Hikaru Sulu by the way." Uhura nodded, and introduced herself and Chekov.

Sulu lead them to a staff room that's door had gotten jammed opened as part of the senior prank. Inside, Kirk was talking to a group that included Instructors Spock and Selek, McCoy (wearing medical scrubs, he must've gotten off shift) a Lieutenant that Uhura didn't recognize, and two other people that were just out of sight.

"Commander Kirk, could we have a word?" Sulu called out.

"Of course." He stepped out. "What is it?"

Uhura began to explain, but she only got to the part where one romulan ship destroyed a Klingon fleet when he stopped her.

"Hold on Cadet, I don't think I'm the only one that needs to hear this." He gestured the trio into the staffroom. "Start at the beginning, Cadet."

"Yes sir, I was listening to Klingon chatter when I intercepted an alert, Romulan Prisoners had escaped. As I was listening, I learned that they had stolen back their own ship and were able to destroy an entire fleet of Klingon pursuit ships. The officer in charge told me not to worry about it, he said it probably happened on the romulan/klingon border, but the frequencies I was monitoring were ones we knew to be posts on the klingon/federation border close to us. I thought I'd double check to make sure, so I went to one of the chart rooms."

"Uhura asked for my help, and ve descowered zat ze prison in question es about 18 hours from Wulcan at max varp, and 20 hours from ze Earth." Chekov handed the padd over to Kirk, who looked at it before passing it to Spock. McCoy looked confused, but the rest of them had a slight undercurrent of tension that told her she was right to second guess her supervisor. "So, ve came to tell someone who vould listen."

"I'm just the guy that led them here, I had no clue what they wanted." Sulu offered. The lieutenant laughed a little.

"Thank you, cadets, you did the right thing." They all stiffened as Uhura realized that there hadn't been two other men in the room, but three, and two of them were admirals while the last was Captain Pike. Captain Pike came up to stand next to Kirk. "Well done, all three of you. If you could give us your names in case we have any further questions for you later, you are dismissed to resume duties, but we'd prefer if you don't mention this information to anyone else."

As they said their names and agreed, Uhura caught a slight flicker in Instructor Selek's face. It was gone before she could understand it, but there was another almost emotion that followed right after that stayed even as they left the room.

As she walked away, Uhura took a long moment trying to figure out why Instructor Selek was proud, before ultimately giving it up and debating about calling ahead so Gaila could get rid of her flavor of the week before she got there.

She wanted to sleep, without having to deal with any idiots.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, a quick note for all those who might be confused- after the attack on the <strong>_**Farragut**_**, and subsequent medical leave, there was a shuffling of ranks and personnel to make up for the sudden vacuum left by the deaths of half the **_**Farragut**_**. Kirk was promoted to Commander and made Pike's first officer. Pike's First Officer (called Number One in TOS) was promoted to Captain and given the **_**Farragut**_**. Spock is a Lt. Commander and the Science officer of the **_**Enterprise**_**. I apologize, but there was no real place to put this information in either the first story or this one without interrupting the flow.**

**Also, if you remember back to the last chapter of In Need and Deed, Kirk comes to talk to McCoy after returning from leave in Riverside (when he met Uhura), and before going on the **_**Farragut**_**'s ill fated trip. Most military academies have a certain time before classes start to acclimate new students (usually in the summer, before the other years arrive).**

**Next note, if Uhura is 19 when the Narada attacks, then three years previously, she was only sixteen. **_**In a bar, ordering what everyone agrees is an alcoholic drink**_**. This, by the way, blows the whole 'Chekov can't drink until 18' thing that most fics have. (This is also why I assumed Uhura was close in age to Kirk.) And she is clearly not carded in the scene, I'm just assuming most bars are taking the view that if you're old enough to be in Starfleet, you're old enough to drink.**

**Final Note, relating to the Prologue: T'Pring. I'm not 100 percent sure what's going to happen with her, to tell the truth, other than she becomes T'Pau's apprentice. T'Pring's character is an interesting one, one that not many people try to give due justice too, because of her actions in TOS Amok Time. (Most authors tend to bash her in some way, others make her OOC, and several others do both.) I'd like to give the reminder that Vulcans are not Humans, despite being played by human actors, and so T'Pring's actions in Amok Time were perfectly logical for a ****Vulcan**** female, despite appearing unnecessarily cruel from a ****human standpoint****. Don't hate someone because their actions don't line up with what you personally grew up with. (Especially a fictional character from a Science fiction show!)**

**Also, you can't compare T'Pring to Spock to justify the prejudice of T'Pring. Spock's a Vulcan/Human hybrid, so he's capable of being compassionate to a degree that full Vulcan's (like T'Pring) are incapable of. (Though Spock would never admit such a thing especially in earshot of McCoy). **

**Any more Questions? Leave it in a review, and I'll see you next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 2, Pavel Chekov

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek rights. This is me having fun in a genre I knew next to nothing about.**

**Note: This chapter will go back and forth between present and past events- if the transition isn't clear enough, please let me know.**

**Reminder: This is not a pairing fic, this is a FRIENDSHIP FIC. As I have mentioned before, you want pairings and romance, go look at another fic. This fic is only going to focus on the friendships formed- if in a future fic, I decide to pair someone up, I can guarrantee it's going to be a slow-formed pairing. **

**This is also an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.**

* * *

><p>"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<p>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should." ~Author Unknown<p>

* * *

><p>True Friendship- Pavel Chekov<p>

_Stardate 2258_

Cadet Chekov woke up to his roommate's rather rude shaking. "Vat?"

"We're being called to assembly, something's going down." Chekov blinked and nodded, getting dressed fairly quickly.

At the assembly hall, he ended up sitting next to Sulu, whom he'd met the night before.

"Vhat is going on?" Chekov startled the other boy, who almost jumped out of his seat.

"I have no idea, but I think it has something to do with last night." Sulu glanced at him, and gave a wry smile. "Explains why we've gotten called this early in the morning, I haven't even had coffee yet."

Admiral Barnett called the assembly to attention.

"Due to recent events, Starfleet needs to mobilize as many ships and crews as possible. In a minute, orders will be sent to the padds of the Seniors and juniors. We are hoping for nothing to happen, but we need to be prepared. You have two hours to pack, then you need to arrive at your assigned shuttles where you will then proceed to your assigned ships. Dismissed." Chekov glanced at Sulu as he pulled out his padd, a movement copied by most everyone else as they began to move.

"Not much on Orders, they just tell us where our assigned shuttle is." Sulu informed him. "I'll see you later?"

"Yes, I think so."

* * *

><p>Chekov, Pavel A. joined Starfleet at the young age of 13. No one expected him to make it through basic training, let alone the first year, but he was stubborn and determined enough to pull through.<p>

So, starting his second year, he became the target of many who felt threatened by the child genius in their ranks. Most of the time, he could not go anywhere without some large (he didn't hit his growth spurt until 15) jerk knocking him down or insulting him.

He didn't really care that much, he shot the insults right back, and things began to escalate.

It all cumulated into a four on one brawl (where he gave as good as he got) and he was yanked out of the fight by his collar, still swinging, as a very sharp whistle cut through the air and made them freeze.

"Commander, you take care of that one, Mr. Spock and I will deal with these four." Captain Pike and a Vulcan were standing to the side, and Chekov finally realised someone was still holding him by the collar.

"Yes sir. Let's go Cadet."

This was his introduction to James T. Kirk (and the beginning of his hero worship, though he would never admit it to anyone). Commander Kirk had actually listened as he explained that Russians never backed down from a fight (he did not intend to admit the bullying, at all) and then managed to manipulate the conversation so Chekov told him everything. Kirk took him to medical, and as he left told Chekov he needed to take a hand-to-hand course so he'd be able to get better at four to one odds. (This led into the meeting of Dr. McCoy, who threw an empty hypo at the Commander and yelled at him to not corrupt kids into copying his bad habits.) After that, he discovered that the commander had been made his advisor.

Kirk put him in touch with Lt. Scott (though Kirk tended to call him 'Scotty') and Lt. Commander Spock to bounce off ideas and theories, leading to a tentative acquaintanceship with both men. Chekov was still wary of Spock, he never could tell if he had done something right or wrong because of the Vulcan's lack of facial expressions.

As a result, Chekov heard, if not by name, then the reputation of some of the other students that Kirk and Pike were keeping an eye on for potential slots on the _Enterprise_. One of the names mentioned was a pilot that Kirk had tutored in logistics back when he was a Lt. Commander.

So Chekov was 90 percent sure Sulu would be on the _Enterprise_, just as he was fairly sure he himself would be as well, along with the girl from last night, Uhura. In mere moments, Chekov was packed and moving towards the shuttles, doing his best to keep from being run over.

* * *

><p>There was a sense of orderly chaos to the whole thing, as everyone quickly stowed their bags, changed uniforms and headed to their stations.<p>

This, of course, was when Chekov almost fainted. He was going to be on the bridge this shift- as navigator! Of the _Enterprise_! The normal navigator that would have been there was ill, and Chekov fell into a blissful state as he began to check his station- even the fact his access code was one he could barely pronounce didn't phase him. (It was awful for the poor man, but Chekov was just happy to be on the bridge.)

"Well, hello again, Chekov." Chekov grinned up at Sulu as he took the pilot's station.

"Sulu! This is amazing, _Da_?"

"Amazing or not, Cadets, you've still got a job to do. You're the replacement, Mr. Sulu?" Commander Kirk had come up behind them, and Chekov almost jumped out of his seat.

"Yessir, The other had lungworm, sir."

"Alright then." Chekov watched as Commander Kirk moved to check in at the other stations. He saw Lt. Commander Spock at the Science station, a green skinned Orion cadet at the Enginneering station, and a few seasoned officers all around. Kirk stopped at communications, and frowned.

Chekov quickly faced front as Kirk began to chide the officer for something. He did hear Kirk ask for someone that knew Romulan to take over the spot.

"Commander, the Captain should have come onboard 2.67 minutes ago." Spock straightened.

"He and the other captains are having a brief meeting on the Spacedock, it might have run over time, Mr. Spock."

"Sir! There's something on the scanners! Approaching fast and Large-!" The entire ship rocked as something hit.

"Disengage from Spacedock!" Kirk shouted. "Sheilds up! What's attacking?"

Chekov's heart was trying to pound its way out of his chest. A second attack rocked the ship again, and they pulled away.

"All Transporter rooms, start evacuating lifesigns from Spacedock, on the double!" Spock ordered.

"Uhura, Report!" Chekov blinked at the familiar face at the communications station.

"Sir, the _Lincoln_ was just destroyed! . . . It's the Romulan Ship!"

"Sir, we need a medic!" The Orion girl called out, one of the ensigns had smashed into his console and was bleeding pretty badly.

"Evasive maneuvers, Sulu; Uhura, try to get in contact with the other ships, or those still on the ground." A third attack, this time Chekov was almost flung out of his seat.

"Engineering, what the hell's going on?" Chekov focused on his station, but Kirk's voice almost cut through his thoughts. "Engineering? Olsen!"

"Sir, damage reports coming- a part of engineering just blew- Olsen was in that section! Damage to the Medical bay as well-"

"Can we talk to anyone in Med-bay?"

"McCoy here, we've lost Puri- Get that man bandaged!" A southern growl reported. "Try to hold this damn ship still, we've got injured down here!"

"We'll try, Acting CMO McCoy." Kirk sounded slightly amused, though it was clearly strained. The southern growl replied with something really rude, but Chekov had returned his attention to plotting a course.

"_Farragut_ and _Triton_ destroyed!" Uhura reported.

This time, it was a shockwave that hit them; they watched as the Spacedock was completely destroyed, some shuttles escaping last minute, others destroyed by the debris. Chekov was flung completely out of his chair, and Kirk was only spared the same fate because of the grip he had on the captain's chair.

"Oh god, we're going to die." Someone cried out as Chekov struggled back up into spot.

"Oh, shut up." Their companion snapped.

"Bridge, this is engineering, Lt. Scott volunteering for duty."

"Scotty, what the hell?"

"I got beamed aboard, sir, what are mah orders?"

"Take over as Chief engineer, Mr. Scott. Kirk out."

"Sir, we're being hailed, by the romulan ship!" Uhura announced.

"Put it on the main screen!" Within moments, Chekov was staring straight into the face of the devil- or at least, the Romulan that must've been his son.

"Hello, Enterprise, I am Nero, captain of the Narada."

"Well, Captain Nero, I'm Acting Captain Kirk, and what you've just done can be constituted as an act of war." No one missed the way the romulan's eyes lit up.

"I'm afraid not, Captain James Kirk . . . my ship and I are not part of this Romulan Empire, or this time. We are from the future."

"That's impossible!" Chekov couldn't help but say, a sentiment that echoed around him. The Romulan just chuckled mirthlessly.

"Why are you attacking?" Kirk demanded.

"We are seeking to destroy Ambassador Spock. We know he's on earth, hidden by Starfleet."

"And you're going to destroy even innocent lives if they're in your way, I take it?" Chekov shivered. He'd never heard Kirk's voice become that . . . cold before. It was scary.

"If they are protecting him, yes. But I can wait a moment . . . I'm more interested in the fact that you, Captain Kirk did not ask for proof of my statement like the boy on your bridge did. In fact, you were unsurprised, as if you already knew me." The entire bridge stilled, and Chekov used the slight reflection in front of him to see Kirk's reaction. "Your deeds as Captain are exalted even by Romulans, Kirk, as bedtime stories and key parts of history class. You, your crew and especially your first officer, the one I know as Ambassador Spock, still have a large following, even 100 years after your death, Kirk. I'm sure the first thing the ambassador did was run to his old friend, the intrepid Captain Kirk! And you know where he is." Chekov risked a quick glance back, and quickly wished he hadn't. Kirk's laughing sky-blue eyes had turned to chips of ice.

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you, Nero. Starfleet does not give in to terrorist demands." Kirk leaned back, as if slightly bored. "Surely your history books told you that."

"Indeed, they did. But tell me, Kirk, if the choice was between the murdering ambassador and many innocent lives, what would you pick?"

"Twenty five years, and you're still carrying a grudge." Kirk mused. "There's a fine line between stubbornness and foolishness, Nero, killing the ambassador won't help the dead. Your planet still exists here."

"Sir, somezing's gone from ze ship to earth!" Chekov reported, trying not to draw the romulan's attention.

"We'll see how your opinion changes, Captain." Then the Romulan ship cut the connection.

"Captain, it's a giant Drill- and it's starting near San Francisco!"

"Seismic activity has started- they've set off the fault line." Spock stated, but everyone on the bridge felt it like a shard of ice to their hearts.

The San Andreas fault would tear apart not just San Francisco, but half the towns in the entire state. If something wasn't done, soon, this would become every Californian's worst nightmare.

"The entire city will crumble!" The orion girl breathed. "Sir, what do we do?"

"Uhura, get communication to anyone in Starfleet- heck, anyone on california's coast- tell them to evacuate in shuttles as fast as they can- Cadets are welcome on the _Enterprise_." Kirk stood, and glared at the view screen, hands on his hips. "We need to destroy that damn drill."

"I might have the answer to that, Captain." Spock spoke up, and Kirk looked back at him. For a moment, neither of them said anything, but then Kirk closed his eyes and nodded.

"You aren't allowed to die today, and that's an order, Lt. Commander."

"Understood, Captain." And then Spock was gone.

"Alright people, let's take advantage of Nero's generosity."

* * *

><p><strong>I <strong>_**did**_** say this was an AU, remember? And as each chapter is in a different character's point of view, you're only going to get the events of the chapter from their perspective.**

**Yes, I do have a small sadistic streak, why do you ask?**

**Anyway, I looked back through my notes for this story, and found a small tangle. That tangle is going to be the next chapter.**

**By tangle, I mean several characters that have small itsy-bitsy parts crucial to this part of the story, and I have to put them in. However, I'm not giving them their own chapter- those who get their own chapters are the main seven of Star Trek (and Spock Prime), and these people don't count.**

**Final Note- Yes, I'm aware some people have gone missing during this attack, don't worry, you'll either find out about them in the next chapter, or in the following chapters. I might have a small sadistic streak, but I'm not heartless.**


	4. Chapter 3, Interlude

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek rights. This is me having fun in a genre I knew next to nothing about.**

**This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, events and characters will be different- either slightly or extremely.**

**There will be NO pairings, either. This is a Friendship fic, not a Romance.**

**Note: This chapter will go through multiple points of view- if the transition isn't clear enough, please let me know.**

* * *

><p>"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<p>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. <strong>Think up something appropriate and do it<strong>." - E. W. Howe

* * *

><p>True Friendship- Interlude<p>

_Stardate 2258_

The world had to be ending. Or at least, that was Ensign Gary Mitchell's opinion.

He'd been one of the few that had been ordered to stay with the Academy, and he'd had a bad feeling that had churned his stomach the entire day. (Damn his family history of psychics!) He was supervising the loading of the shuttle when another feeling hit. The strange certainty he always got when someone nearby was going to be hurt. He broke away despite the pilot's shout at him, and rounded a building, promptly finding the source of his feeling.

An old Vulcan (one of the instructors he'd never met) carrying a little girl.

"C'mon, the shuttle's this way!" Something in one of the buildings gave as Mitchell supported the Vulcan on the alien's left side, and he was sprayed with liquid. The little girl was holding a whimpering puppy. "It's okay; you're going to be alright!" He got them to the shuttle before the doors closed, and just as the ground began to _really_ tremble. The shuttle shot out of there just as a building came down.

Mitchell coughed, sinking to the ground as one of the cadets shouted for the med kit.

He hadn't even realized that he'd been hurt. The Vulcan instructor looked at him.

"Don't let the little girl see." Mitchell managed. The old Vulcan nodded, and cradled the little girl closer.

Their shuttle was one of seven to make it to the Enterprise.

* * *

><p>Jiaboli 'Geoffrey' M'Benga was lead, along with the rest of the civilians that made it onto the shuttles going to the <em>Enterprise<em>, (either by accident or because of rescue) into a Rec Room.

He'd been trying to get to the hospital to help with evacuations, but instead had carried an injured man to a shuttle and had gotten pulled on as well.

He was just a medical intern, anyway, he'd probably just get in the way, the part of him that wanted to curl up into a corner and hide until everything went away whispered.

Instead, as the security officers calmed the civilians down, he found himself straightening and taking in deeper breaths. "I've got a background in medicine, and I'm willing to work!" Everyone looked at him as if he was insane, but he focused on the security officer that appeared to be in charge. "Ask the med staff if they need an extra pair of hands, I'm not going to sit here and do nothing if there's something I can do." The officer went to the comm. for a moment, and then turned back to him.

"Report to Dr. McCoy, Barrows can show you the way." As M'Benga followed the dark haired female security member out, he heard someone else volunteer.

"I work at a mechanic shop and I can take orders, where can I help out?"

* * *

><p>When the attack started, Janice Rand had been at the absolute bottom of the yeoman ladder (she'd graduated a couple years previously and had been working as an administrative assistant's assistant in the Academy since). When everything had gone to hell, she found herself stepping up. She got the list of civilians on board, those who were now volunteering, and had quickly begun organizing the other yeoman to go to stations.<p>

It never even crossed her mind to wait for someone to give her orders. Rand knew what had to be done, and so she did it. It was as simple as that.

* * *

><p>Nurse Christine Chapel had heard stories from the senior nursing staff about what giving treatment in a battle situation was like.<p>

They paled in comparison to this situation; though to be fair, the sickbay was never hit in those stories.

Chapel's first impression of McCoy had been 'Grumpy' and she'd made plans to stay out of his way.

Instead she had been right by his side as he worked on patients, until he barked at her to act as the head nurse and start fielding and tagging patients when the heavier casualties began to come in from engineering and the poor souls they'd barely rescued from space dock. When the medical intern M'Benga entered, she sent him right into surgery to help McCoy as she got the nursing staff to work more effectively.

Shouts for supplies went back and forth, and Christine made the mistake of glancing at the clock.

Strange how time seemed to still in a crisis.

* * *

><p>Ensign Keenser had made the dubious acquaintance of Lt. Scott almost a year prior to the attack. Scott had been moved from the <em>Porthos<em> to space dock (probably cause the man was insane, in Keenser's opinion) and the two had begun a like/dislike friendship that involved Scotty (He had gleefully begun using Commander Kirk's nickname for Scott) yelling at him and Keenser sniping right back.

Needless to say, Keenser had been very relieved when, just as the place they were standing turned into an inferno, they had suddenly materialized onto the _Enterprise_. Scott had immediately gotten an overview of the engineering situation, before going down to engineering (Keenser following to make sure Scott had someone to watch his back, the human was hopeless without someone to take care of him) and taking over.

Keenser, like Scott, had thrown himself into repairs- though Scotty was yelling orders like a drill sergeant and with just as many insults.

Keenser liked surviving, and he was going to repair and do whatever he needed to, to keep surviving.

* * *

><p><strong>See what I mean about a tangle? Mitchell, M'Benga, Rand, Chapel and Keenser all demanded parts- I seriously tried to cut them out, as I just wanted to keep it to the main seven and Spock Prime, but these five all came forward and said they had to be included! The nerve of these characters . . . and the worst part, there's two or three other characters that have informed me they're going to make a point of inserting themselves later on.<strong>


	5. Chapter 4, Hikaru Sulu

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre.**

**Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and as such, things are happening a little different than the movie.**

**Also, once again, there will be a shift from present to past and then back again.**

* * *

><p>"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<p>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"Where trust and integrity meet, friendship is born."- Olaf van Daal<p>

* * *

><p>True Friendship- Hikaru Sulu<p>

_Stardate 2258_

He'd been in simulators and had done so many practice runs, but nothing had prepared him for this; flying a starship through a field of debris, and trying to not hit anything.

Besides him, Chekov, the poor kid, was practically trembling, and he was aware that Kirk was still there, sitting behind him as if this was just another classroom simulation. Surprisingly, he was starting to understand what his mother meant when she talked about people that had a 'powerful presence'. Just knowing Kirk was there was helping him keep a level head.

Nero, the crazy Romulan, was ignoring them for the moment, but that could change, and judging from Kirk's thoughtful glances to the science station, it would.

"Sir, with all due respect, what's Lt. Commander Spock planning?"

"You'll see soon enough Mr. Sulu." Kirk spoke with a strange mix of amusement and resignation, before answering his comm.. "Kirk here."

"Spock; I'm ready to go Captain." The Lt. Commander sounded calm too.

"Alright, stop that drill. Uhura, sound a red alert, I want everyone at battle stations, this could get ugly." The red lights began flashing, Uhura's voice instructing the rest of the ship to their battle stations.

"Yes sir." A tiny ship left the _Enterprise_- Sulu didn't recognize the design.

"We're backing up that ship, don't let the Romulans destroy or capture it." Sulu obeyed, and before he knew it, the small ship destroyed the drill. The ship then flew off, and the _Narada_ began to follow.

"Follow the _Narada_!" Sulu didn't question the orders as they followed the two ships into warp. "Scotty, need you in the transporter room; you too Chekov." Sulu glanced back at Kirk. "Sulu, we're going to have fly out of here in a hurry if things go wrong, be prepared."

* * *

><p>Sulu had met Kirk his first day at the Academy- he'd gotten lost, and had ended up in the administrative wing. Kirk had redirected him, and all in all, that should have been the end of it.<p>

Except Sulu was in command track, and had to take basic logistics and tactics. Which, along with several other tactical classes, were taught by Kirk. Sulu had done horribly on the midterm, and Kirk had left a standing offer for _anyone_ in the class who needed help.

Sulu had taken it, and had enjoyed it. Kirk became his unofficial mentor, and he had been introduced to Spock, Scott, McCoy and baby Joanna (whom Kirk had tricked him into babysitting a couple times).

He'd been freaked out when he learned that half of the _Farragut_'s crew had been killed, had been even more worried than relieved when he found out Kirk had survived but was really weak. He had visited, but had promptly decided that Kirk on a biobed (and deathly pale) was something he never wanted to see again. He hadn't even been aware he had looked up to the man that much, but seeing Kirk in the hospital had given him the same sick feeling in his stomach that Sulu had last felt when his dad had been in the hospital. Sulu had avoided the hospital after that, preferring to wait until Kirk had been discharged.

In the meantime, he met Lt. Scott on an almost daily basis, the lieutenant having to take over some of Kirk's classes, and the two developed a friendship over thinking of ways to make ships go faster (which always happened when a pilot and engineer got in a room). Scott had even helped him out when Sulu strayed to more personal things than engines and logistics.

"_There are lots of different people in Starfleet, some are followers, others leaders. Kirk's a leader, but he's . . . Kirk's got the ability to make people follow him; we all know it, even him. But the best thing about Kirk, is that he'll nae force anyone to go any farther than they're willing. Of course, that makes us want to stay even more, but donnae tell the lad that- he's got a damn complex that would make him try to get us to leave."_

Sulu hadn't understood, but he got the feeling that Scott just hadn't had the words to fully explain Kirk's 'ability'.

Because Sulu found himself, once he saw Kirk walking around again, all but swearing to follow Kirk and makes sure he didn't end up on a hospital bed like that again.

* * *

><p>"Sir, Spock's ship is going to ram into the <em>Narada<em>!" The man at the science station was big and fairly intimidating, and he had a scorch mark on his shirt. (Sulu hadn't even noticed him come on the bridge.)

"I know, Mr. DeSalle." Sulu watched as the tiny ship slammed into the larger one, and a black hole (that was the only way Sulu could identify it) began to form. Uhura gave a short cry from her station. Sulu spared a glance, and almost forgot to fly away from the anomaly. Spock and Chekov returned to the bridge, the Russian kid all but glowing with excitement.

"What the heck!" Gaila, the orion girl from his engineering class, managed.

"Uhura, hail the Romulan Ship!" Kirk ordered, bringing them all back to business.

Quite honestly, Sulu disagreed with Kirk's offer of clemency to the Romulans, but judging from the grim smile the Acting Captain had, Kirk hadn't agreed with the action either. Nor had he expected the Romulans to agree. Chekov obeyed the order to fire with ill-concealed glee (and Sulu felt a little worried about that. He'd heard of Chekov from Kirk and Scott, as well as by his reputation as kid genius, but there was something a little worrying about the kid's willingness to obey without question- the 'Kirk Factor' as Scotty and McCoy had taken to calling it, had obviously hit the kid hard) and the _Narada_ got torn apart.

A fate they'd soon share, he realized. "Sir, we're getting sucked in!"

"Warp Cores cannae handle the strain, sir!" Scotty announced.

"Eject the Cores!"

"What?" That one word echoed around the bridge, and from the comm..

"Do it, Scotty! Chekov, shoot them as they come out- Do it!"

It worked, too, Sulu almost slumped against his console in relief, having just ridden a tsunami of a shockwave, sharing a grin with the crazy child genius.

"Uhura, tell everyone to stand down, and send a message to the fleet, update on the situation and request for aide- send it as a loop." Kirk stood from the chair. "I'm going to check on engineering-" He shared a glance at Spock, who just raised an eyebrow. "-Sulu, you have the conn." Sulu blinked and stared at Kirk in surprise. Kirk just grinned unashamedly. "Call me or Spock to the bridge the moment something changes- we're going to have to limp home on half impulse power."

"Yes sir."

"DeSalle, stay at the science station. Everyone else, good work, but we're not home yet." Sulu nodded. As they left, Sulu took a deep breath.

"Alright guys, let's head home." Everyone returned to their stations, and Sulu felt strangely unsettled by their following his order, but he pushed it away.

The action might be over, but the repairs were just starting, and everyone was aware that they might not like what they'd find when they did return to Earth.

* * *

><p><strong>. . . I did say action was going to be secondary to the thoughts of the characters, remember?<strong>

**And we all know there was a heck of a lot more that happened after they escaped the anomally, which, in my humble opinion, is where they really started to bond.**

**So, next will be Scotty, followed by McCoy. I'll have to do a coin toss after that to see if I'll do Kirk or Spock after McCoy.**

**I humbly apologize for the lack of Pike, for those of you that are Pike fans, but he's not who I'd consider a core character, and therefore, not that crucial to the story . . . however, you'll find out what happened to him in the upcoming chapters.**

**Anyone recognize DeSalle? He's one of the characters from TOS, and he's a Science/Engineer. I liked his character (the few times we saw him) and wanted to do more with him. He's most easily seen in the eps This Side of Paradise and Catspaw. And by 'most easily seen' I mean he actually has a role in the plot.**


	6. Chapter 5, Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre.**

**Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and as such, things are happening a little different than the movie.**

**Also, there will be a shift from present to past and then back again.**

* * *

><p>"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<p>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help." ~Epicurus<p>

* * *

><p>True Friendship- Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott<p>

_Stardate 2258_

"-And that's really the best we can do, sir, until we get to a space dock." Scotty finished, waving an arm. "Ejecting the warp cores saved our lives, but its set us in engineering back a week."

"If there had been another choice, Scotty, you know I'd have taken it." Jim looked at him mournfully, and Scotty kicked himself for complaining. The lad didn't need the stress. Spock was standing right behind him, and he looked tense as well.

Scott could still remember teasing the 15 year old Jim about having a 'Scottish Engineer' and 'Vulcan First Officer'. He'd had no idea that the joke would ever become a reality.

He'd taken Jim out for drinks when he'd turn 18, had talked to him over the years as he rose in rank, faster than most. And had been pleased as the lad had grown into the Commander that he and Archer had glimpsed when they rescued him from Tarsus IV. Despite the circumstances, he was glad to see James T. Kirk a Captain, even an acting one.

"I know," His apology was cut off by a small smile and a wave.

"Don't worry about it; I get the feeling I'm going to be hearing more of it when I get to Medical." Jim glanced up as Keenser passed overhead, moving like a lemur through the various rigs. A yeoman rushed up, gold-blonde hair a mess. She gave Jim a padd. "Have you been looking for me all over the ship?"

"I got to the bridge about 5 minutes after you left, sir." She took a deep breath. "That's the list of civilians, as well as the sections that some volunteered to help in. Most went to Medical."

"Aye sir, we've got a couple here, they're mostly helping our engineers with the manual work."

"Fascinating . . . I was under the impression most civilians would have stayed in the Rec room with a battle going on."

"Most would. But there are always exceptions." Scotty looked at Spock, and the Vulcan looked back in confusion. Scotty sighed and mouthed the word 'Tarsus' and pointed at Jim. He saw when the reference clicked in Spock's eyes. The Vulcan inclined his head.

Scotty then turned his attention to Jim and the yeoman.

"What's your name, Yeoman?"

"Rand, sir." She straightened.

"You're with me and Spock; I want to check on the civilians before I go to medical. Mr. Scott, are you going to need anything?"

"Not right away, sir, but I'll let you know."

"Good. As you were, then." Scotty nodded and watched as Jim left, Spock on his right the female yeoman- Rand- on his left. For one moment, he was almost a decade in the past, watching three friends walking. He gave a wry chuckle. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

"Tomlinson! What sort of daft-" Scotty returned to work. This involved talking with Sulu on occasion as the engines and auxilary power had taken a bit of a beating in the fight.

Sulu was another one he could see becoming captain of his own ship someday, he reflected after another check in. Kirk had seen that almost right away when the kid had come to him for help.

Though right now, Sulu just wanted the adventure that came with being a pilot, he was in the command track, but it would take a few missions and more than a few years for the kid to throw off the Kirk Factor enough to want to leave. (And quite possibly even longer for Chekov, the poor boy never stood a chance against the Kirk Factor.) Both Sulu and Chekov were people he could enjoy being around, they tolerated his idiosyncrasies- as had Spock and Bones, when Jim introduced them.

The only one he hadn't met one on one was Uhura- he had seen her when she came with Sulu and Chekov to report what she had heard, and he instantly saw what Jim had liked about her.

She didn't take no for an answer, and would find someone who would listen if she felt she was in the right. She probably had saved a lot of lives by alerting them when she had, and Scotty highly approved of her finding out the information necessary to back her opinion up. Like Sulu, she was command material, though she probably didn't realize it herself just yet.

Scotty was also pretty sure she would be fun to talk to. Jim had explained the rules of the drinking game to him one night when they managed to have the same leave. He wasn't a linguist, but he enjoyed social drinking.

Heck, when this was all over, they should all get together for a polite social party, to relax, unwind, and maybe even mourn.

"Keenser, get offa' that!"

* * *

><p><strong>Ah, Scotty, the voice of experience on the team, and the one character who can give an accurate measure of how far Kirk and Spock have come.<strong>

**Now, from how I understood the chain of command in TOS it went like this**

**Kirk (Captain)**

**Spock (First officer/Second in Command)**

**Scotty (He was officially third in command on the Enterprise. And when he did have to take command, he was rather shrewd about the whole thing.)**

**McCoy (He was always fourth in Command, but because he made up the TOS Trio with Spock and Kirk, everyone automatically puts him as third in command in their minds- Then again, Scotty never really cared for command as long as he was needed in the engine room)**

**Sulu (Sulu gets the conn a lot when the TOS Trio leave.)**

**Then there are various others that are able to take command, like Mr. DeSalle and Security Chief Giotto.**

**Uhura and Chekov rarely take command (probably due to the attitudes at the time TOS was written) but with Uhura at Communications and Chekov (an ensign) as head navigator, it is probably a good bet that they were on the command chain, just lower than the rest- and in my mind, Uhura is just above Chekov.**

**Note on Rand: She was initially created as a long-term love interest for Kirk, as well as his 'secretary'. Roddenberry implied that she was supposed to be sort of an advisor to Kirk- in fact, from what I gather, she was supposed to be the third musketeer, and not McCoy.**

**The producers, however, wanted Kirk to have 'a girl in every port' sort of lifestyle; and so Rand was written out, much to Roddenberry's displeasure. (He tried to bring her back in Dagger of the Mind, but the part was instead rewritten for Helen Noel) I have decided to try and bring back Rand as an advisor to Kirk for my story.**

**In my universe, she's going to be Kirk's 'field secretary', and act as the voice of 'ship-running practicality'- in other words, the voice of the **_**Enterprise**_**.**

**Will there be Romance between her and Kirk? I honestly don't know. I'm going to start them off as co-workers/friends and see where it goes from there- for all I know, it's going to end up in a brother/sister relationship, like Kirk and Uhura. Please note, Rand without Kirk ended up as Sulu's first officer. (And that's another note- you see Rand hanging out with Sulu a lot . . . could it be that Sulu and Rand had a relationship in the Prime universe? I don't know, but either way probably won't happen in mine)**

**So, that's my note on Rand. (I'll probably have to re-type this note at a future date as a reminder, on that note- how many times have I warned people I don't write romance all that well? Heck, that's why one of my stories is on hiatus right now, I can't write a romance scene that I need!)**

**Next, McCoy's point of view . . . it's going to get a little angsty, people, so ya'll have been warned!**


	7. Chapter 6, Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre created by G. Roddenberry.**

**Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.**

**Also, there will be a shift from present to past and then back again.**

**Last update for awhile- there is such a thing as school and real life- however, I'd like to point out that short chapters equals quicker updates, so if the next character cooperates, I should post this coming weekend.**

* * *

><p>"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<p>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"A friend can tell you things you don't want to tell yourself." ~Frances Ward Weller<p>

* * *

><p>True Friendship- Leonard 'Bones' McCoy<p>

He'd been in and out of surgery over several hours, everyone had been stabilized, they'd found Pike- his legs were a charred mess, as was half his face, but his arms and the crew member he'd been protecting were safe (and had that been a mess to clean up, one of the youngest nurses had thrown up when he was brought in), of course, they hadn't known at the time they were operating on Pike- that moment of realization had come when McCoy had actually looked at the name the tri-corder registered, _after_ the surgery.

There were a few others worse off than Pike, surprisingly, and more than a few had died, most of them not reaching Sickbay in time.

All in all, a dark day, but now that McCoy was no longer rushing to save lives, he was wishing that he was still in surgery.

In the haste to ship out, and the likely hood of battle, he'd left Joanna at Starfleet. She was supposed to have been safe there- several other kids who's parents were unable to take them had left their kids behind- in safety, they had thought.

The damn Romulans had set off the fault line- what were the odds that Joanna was safe? He already knew that communications with half the state of California were down, it would take a week to get back to earth.

A week to find out if his baby girl was alright.

"Here." He blinked at the dark haired woman. "Coffee, I don't know if you like it, but it's warm." She was wearing a green shirt and jeans. She wasn't Starfleet. He pointed that out.

"No, I'm not, I'm not even a Nurse- I volunteered to help out with moving patients and getting drinks if needed." She smiled. "I'm Nancy. Nancy Peach." She had a slight accent to her voice.

"Doctor McCoy." He didn't feel like drinking, but he held onto the cup. "Thanks for the coffee."

"Least I could do." She shifted, "Your head nurse said you should get some sleep."

"Where is she?"

"Passed out in a corner with the dark-skinned doctor- I don't know his name."

"M'Benga, he's an intern." _Poor kid_, McCoy thought, slightly fond. The intern had done a good job of keeping his head when dealing with the really bad burns. He was going to be a real good doctor someday.

"Oh, I had thought he seemed young . . ." The door to medbay opened, and Jim came in the door. Nancy backed up a bit slightly.

"Bones, you alright?" Jim gently gripped his shoulder. Of course, Bones knew what his friend was really asking.

"No, it's going to take us a week to find out if Jo's . . ." The tears burned his eyes as his throat tightened. Jim just gripped his shoulder tighter.

"Wife?" Nancy asked, voice soft.

"Daughter." Jim corrected, voice just as tight as Bones' throat. "Damnit, Bones . . . I need you to check on one of the civilians- Spock's got a kit there already, but we don't know what to do. After that, you need to go to bed."

"Jim, I can't-"

"Doctor, I'll come get you if something happens that needs you." Nancy promised. Bones followed Jim's pull.

Bones entered the Rec. Room, pulling himself together to check on a patient-

"DADDY!" Only for his world to slow as his little girl, dirt and dust covered, ran to him with open arms.

"Jo!" He was openly crying as he embraced his little girl.

"Daddy, I was so scared . . ."

"You're alright, thank the Lord you're alright!" He was barely aware of others in the room smiling and crying at the reunion. He glanced at Jim, who was smiling at him, eyes over-bright with unshed tears. "You . . . you could've said-"

"And miss seeing this cause you outran me? No way." Jim grinned. "I needed to see this too." Bones was too emotional to continue scolding his friend, instead, he did the next best thing- he hit him in the arm.

A soft yip brought his attention to Spock who walked over holding a beagle puppy. Behind him was Selek.

Bones was well aware that Selek was a future version of Spock- he treated both of them, and it was necessary for someone to know the difference between the two medically. Selek was just as dirt covered as Joanna, though he moved with a slight limp.

"I found her rescuing the puppy- it had gotten trapped, and she wasn't going to leave it." Selek explained. "I was looking for her, anyway."

Bones had noticed that Selek seemed to always stare at Joanna in a mix between wonder and puzzlement- all he'd gotten out of the man was that the Joanna he knew had been born in 2249, and he was simply curious about the time change, but Bones just _knew_ that wasn't all that Selek seemed to care about, the old hobgoblin always went out of his way to keep an eye on Joanna.

Not that he was complaining right then.

"Thank you."

"Thanks are unnecessary, I would have done it regardless . . . but you're welcome." Selek added.

"Dr. McCoy." Jim, his best friend, had vanished. In his place stood 'Acting' Captain Kirk. "I believe I said once you were done here, you were to get some sleep? I believe Joanna needs it as well."

"Aye, sir. Joanna, sweetheart, can you take the puppy from Spock? I'm sure the puppy wants to sleep as well." (He was going to grow to regret this, he just knew it, but Joanna lit up at the reminder of the puppy, and the puppy was clearly happy to be back in Joanna's arms, so he didn't see the issue just then.)

"Spock, go with him, make sure he makes it." Kirk ordered, and then turned to a blonde that McCoy hadn't seen.

Spock walked besides him in silence, and Joanna (and the puppy) drifted off. "You know, I don't need an escort, I can make it to my room just fine."

"I know." Spock agreed. "But the Captain has told me to return to the bridge once I've escorted you to your room." Bones nodded, shifting Joanna a little.

"You were worried too, huh?"

"Doctor, I do not know much about emotions or humans, but I do know plenty about family and children. It is something that is quite logical to cherish." They made it to McCoy's room. "So yes, I was worried about Joanna as well . . . there was no safe place for her to go." Spock followed McCoy in, but stood at the doorway. McCoy set Joanna down on the bed an looked back at him.

"Do you need to talk?"

"Only if my meditation proves difficult." Spock admitted, softly.

"You know where to find me, hobgoblin."

"Indeed, Doctor." Spock left.

McCoy sighed, and it took him a bit to get Jo awake enough to change into one of his shirts (he'd work on clothes for her later) before he changed into sleepwear himself. The puppy was still sleeping in Joanna's arms, snuggled up against her, and McCoy chuckled before laying down on the bed.

He fell asleep listening to the wonderful sound of his daughter's breathing.

* * *

><p><strong>In my mind, I was thinking that Spock, Jim and McCoy spent a lot of time with Joanna, especially after the divorce- think 'Three Men and a Baby', but with Scotty and Selek making appearances. As a result, Spock and Jim were worried about her as well- they just had to keep moving.<strong>

**Selek's fascination with Joanna: If I remember right, one of the possible reasons that Spock Prime was too late to stop the problem was that he was visiting Joanna on her death bed, saying goodbye to his last link to Dr. McCoy. Then (in my universe) he comes back in time, and he's suddenly faced with Baby Joanna, just starting her life. (That's enough for anyone to be fascinated, don't you think?)**

**And now we know what happened to Pike. In TOS, he got hit by radiation while saving two crewmen; In Star Trek 2009, he got his brain munched on by a bug; in my universe, he got burned trying to protect a nameless crewmember. (Actually, it was a bit more than 'burned', a piece of burning metal fell on him, but I couldn't explain that in the story.)**

**Poor Pike, he's got it rough.**

**Note on Nancy 'Peach': This is the TOS future Nancy Crater from the episode 'The Man Trap'. Kirk describes her as the one that 'got away' from McCoy ten years previous to that episode, which technically started off the first season of TOS. She's one half of a husband-and-wife archaeology team, so she's an archaeologist by profession.**

**(Guess what? This is a decade before Kirk got the **_**Enterprise**_** originally.)**

**Eventually, I'm thinking of making Bones and Nancy pair up- not this fic, heck, might not even happen, but it's the only pairing that I've been really thinking about giving any sort of focus to.**

**Why Peach for a last name? Well, 'Crater' is her married name (it would be odd if I called her that, several years before she even married the guy, and I watched the episode several times to see if they ever mention what her unmarried name was (no luck)), and most interestingly, her nickname for McCoy was 'Plum'.**

**Now, whenever I hear 'Plum' used as a name, I automatically think 'Professor Plum' from Clue, the board game. So I decided I'd take a last name from one of the other characters. I have a Master Clue board, and that has extra characters- The original Characters- Ms. Scarlett, Col. Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Ms. White, Mr. Green; Then Monsieur Brunette, Ms. Peach, Madame Rose, and Sgt. Grey. I narrowed it down to Scarlett and Peach for a last name, but I decided to go with 'Peach' because it matched 'Plum' the best. Thus, her unmarried name is now Nancy Peach.**

***Also, in the movie Clue, Plum was the alias for a Doctor- it's a good movie, has Tim Curry in it.**

**Silly sort of logic to figure out a name for a character, but I have a long list of little ideas that crop up in each chapter. (believe or not, I do plan even the tiniest thing out.)**

**Spock will have the next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 7, Spock

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre created by G. Roddenberry.**

**Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and it is a FRIENDSHIP fic.**

* * *

><p>"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<p>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human."<p>

~George Santayana

* * *

><p>True Friendship- Spock<p>

Having just walked McCoy and his daughter to the (now) CMO's quarters, Spock paused the turbo lift before he reached the bridge. He needed time to collect his thoughts and deal with the fact that his Alternate-future self was on board the _Enterprise_ as well.

To say he had not been happy about the discovery of his future-Alternate self would have been putting it mildly. Strangely enough, he wasn't too mad about the fact the Other-him melded with Jim, (he'd trained with Jim to make sure Jim could withstand a psychic attack, Jim's shields would stand up against a lot of things) what he had been . . . irritated, with, was the strange way his Alternate acted. He'd been uneasy every time the other him was in the same room, no matter how polite and benign the elder acted. Selek had admitted to not feeling entirely at ease when they talked face to face, but neither had a problem doing so over a audio or visual comm.. Which, of course, made it difficult to work alone together. In fact, the only time the irritation went away was if there were people in the room. They finally theorized that it was like having magnets with the same polarity- They could exist in the same area if there was something to cling to, but alone, they repelled each other- Spock more violently than Selek.

Selek put it more simply- there was supposed to be one Spock per timeline, the existence of another Spock made the other's existence feel threatened.

Thankfully, (and probably due to his alternate's advanced age) it was only bad if there was just the two of them in a room. Even having one other person there made it easier for Spock to tolerate the other's presence.

Still, exposure to each other was still a cause for tension, even on good days. Spock took a deep breath and filed the memory into the box were the rest of the memories of his interactions with Selek went.

The next thought wasn't quite as easy to put aside.

They'd been preparing for Nero's reappearance since Selek had explained what had happened. Selek had given them the specs for the _Narada_ and they had covered all possible tactics that could possibly be used against the mine _Jellyfish_ (and who, Spock wanted to know, came up with that name?) had been put on the _Enterprise_ almost immediately after they had been alerted by Uhura about the escape of Romulans in a ship capable of destroying Klingon ships.

The _Jellyfish_ was the only ship advanced enough to take on the _Narada_. It had been a gamble, on Spock's part, that it would answer to him as well as it did Selek. (A result from spending so much time with humans, he was taking more and more gambles and less logical routes.)

Spock's gamble had paid off, but Jim had not been happy. He could see it even as Jim agreed to his idea and let him go, that Jim would have much preferred to have traded places with Spock. It was illogical on Jim's part, but understandable from an emotional perspective. Out of everyone on the ship, Jim had lost the most because of Nero's interference, it would be only logical to worry and protect those he still had left.

Then again, Jim _always_ preferred to be on the frontlines protecting than in safety giving orders.

Spock let out another breath, and made a mental note to talk to Jim about what a Captain was supposed to do.

The rest of his thoughts and emotions were pushed to the side for later sorting. It would take a long time with meditation to even begin to get his equilibrium back.

Spock took a third deep breath to center himself, and restarted the lift.

* * *

><p>"Sir, we're still only at half impulse power, no response to our requests for aid, either." Sulu noticed him come back onto the bridge. Spock nodded.<p>

"Sir, relief ships have come from Andoria, Vulcan, Betazed and a few other planets to help Earth- no messages from Starfleet yet, but there is confirmation that our message has been received- they're just busy with the planet right now." Uhura reported.

"Any ships close to us?"

"None that can get here any sooner than three days, sir. Wait, message from Starfleet- Admiral Archer and the _Porthos_ are hosting the other Admirals that made it out. They want our reports within 2 days, sir."

"Acknowledge, and send the lists of survivors and casualties. What's the status of Beta shift?"

"They're missing their engineer, all engineers had to report to engineering, but they're willing to come on, Security Chief Giotto is in command of that shift." Sulu reported.

"Then trade off, there will be a meeting for Alpha shift before it starts tomorrow. Everyone get some food and then rest . . . preferably eight hours worth." Spock stared out at the stars for a minute, before turning back to Giotto, a muscular man with thick black hair that was starting to go grey. "The Captain and I will still be functioning until the beginning of Gamma shift. Should anything happen, call either him or me immediately."

"Understood." Spock entered the lift, then wished he hadn't. Sulu and Chekov were both leaning against the wall, and Uhura was leaning against her Orion friend. Their emotions were projecting and hitting his shields which had thinned from stress. The others were stressed as well. If Jim had been there, he would have talked to them, reassured them and make them relax. Spock had never quite seen the logic to the action, but he knew it helped humans somehow.

"McCoy's daughter was on one of the Shuttles that made it to the _Enterprise_, she's alright." It wasn't what Spock meant to say, but the words slipped out.

"Really?" Sulu looked relieved, Spock belatedly remembered that Sulu had babysat Joanna a few times. "Thank God . . ."

"I am glad to hear zat! She's a tiny little girl!" Chekov noticed Sulu's look. "Commander Kirk vas my Academic mentor, Joanna played in his office." Chekov explained.

"What are the odds?" Gaila the Orion smiled.

"To Joanna's safe arrival aboard the _Enterprise_? Approximately, 3,788.7 to 1." Uhura let out a soft laugh at Gaila's expression of surprise. "I must interpret from Uhura's response that was meant to be a rhetorical question?"

"Yes sir, it was." Uhura continued to chuckle. The tension that had been built in the battle now released, and those in the lift relaxed, their emotions no longer brushing against Spock's shields in agitation.

Maybe there was something to telling jokes to 'lighten the mood' after all. It would need further study.

In fact, this entire crew would need further study. For the longest time, Jim was the only human that Spock had ever felt completely at ease with. (He respected and trusted Pike and his crew, but he'd never been at ease with interacting with them.) He had tolerated Scotty when they first met, when Spock was still slightly wary (Jim would say 'overprotective') of Jim's interaction with others on account of his poor health. After, he respected the Scotsman's mind, but his actions and mode of speech often left Spock confused.

Then they met McCoy. And Spock found someone he could debate with about emotionalism vs. logic. (Jim, despite being human, was not firmly rooted in either camp.) The doctor became his first friend besides Jim.

After that, Scott and his visits became more tolerable, and Spock found himself enjoying the man's company more and more, his illogical penchant for drinking and sandwiches notwithstanding.

He'd met Uhura before Jim had, Spock taught the pre-requsite Introduction to Xenolinguistics, but he had not paid much attention to her until she became the best in his class. Uhura was sure of herself and Spock had instantly thought that she would either get along with Jim or hate him, their personalities were so very similar. Chekov had been interesting to talk to, but the boy's enthusiasm made it rather difficult to follow sometimes. He hadn't known Sulu all that well, other than the fact that Jim had convinced him a few times to babysit Joanna.

And yet . . . he could see the potential they had, the possibility of becoming more than just crew members. He'd seen the same possibilities as Jim had, before they talked about what Selek had shown him in the meld- glimpses of people they knew and some they didn't, moments of joy and sorrow . . . the fact that they had become friends hadn't surprised him as much as it should have.

They weren't the crew of Selek's memories, that had taken years to develop, but they were on their way to a similar destiny. And Spock found that the possibility was not as unpleasant as he had first thought . . . in fact, he was leaning toward cultivating those friendships with an illogical eagerness.

They split off once they reached the deck where the crew quarters were located. Spock made it to his quarters, intending to stop and take a shower, then hunt down Jim to make sure he was alright. McCoy was busy with Joanna, and thus there would not be anyone there to make sure that Jim acknowledged his need for sleep. His T'hy'la had a habit of running himself into the ground because he was so busy watching over others that he forgot to watch out for himself.

He made it to the bed to take of his shoes, before falling asleep, one boot on, the other off.

Vulcans may not need as much sleep as humans did, usually slipping into light meditation when rest was needed; but Spock had already pulled a few all-nighters at the academy before everything happened, and the exhaustion (as well as stress) had finally caught up to him. Whatever else they were, Vulcans were not indestructible, no matter how many times they _implied_ otherwise.

Spock's sleep was so deep, that he didn't even notice it when Jim came in to check on him, and instead removed the other boot and covered him in a blanket.

* * *

><p><strong>I noticed a lot of people put Spock Prime and Spock on rather less than cordial terms. Of course, in a lot of those stories, there's a sort of competition for Kirk's attention, but me, and my non-slash oriented mind, thought up a different theory- Namely, the timeline's trying to correct itself, so Spock can't tolerate Spock Prime's existence in this timeline because they're the same person, and there can only be one 'Spock'. Thus, putting them together in the same room is asking for trouble, unless there's someone else to keep them from focusing on each other. (Like Kirk)<strong>

**Kirk's next, and then the chapter after that will return to 3****rd**** person and all the characters thoughts.**

**This story is almost over, people, and then the only thing you're getting from me is the occasional one shot in this universe.**


	9. Chapter 8, James T Kirk

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre created by G. Roddenberry.**

**Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and a FRIENDSHIP FIC, there is NO ROMANCE. (Despite the fact that it is Kirk's chapter, and he's a major flirt.)**

**Also, there will be a shift from present to past and then back again. This is also a long chapter, because Kirk has a lot more things to do than the other Characters, being the captain . . .**

* * *

><p>"<em>Foreign Earth language translated to Standard.<em>"

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"Friends are relatives you make for yourself." ~Eustache Deschamps<p>

* * *

><p>True Friendship- James T. Kirk<p>

Kirk had spent hours with Yeoman Rand right next to him, sorting out sleeping arrangements for the civilians on board. He'd spent the past 2 hours dealing with a couple civilians who weren't happy with not getting back to Earth right away.

"Think of it this way, you're alive." He finally growled. "We'll do all we can, but you're not the only ones who've got troubles."

"We didn't ask to be saved!" The blonde woman snapped back, her husband was obediently nodding his head in agreement.

"Oh shut up!" Another woman, this one with auburn hair interfered. "If I hear another word out of you, I'll tell your husband exactly what you get up to every Saturday! Don't think I won't!" She added in a snarl. The blonde went silent, wide-eyed. "Now take the room assignment and go!" Kirk barely hid the sigh of relief. "Alright, now where am I sleeping?"

"Name?"

"Stella. Stella Mudd. My husband's not with me, the bastard, left me a week ago, and I can't find him to do anything. Can't even divorce him, the good for nothing lout!" The woman was growling.

"Well, if you need a job, Starfleet has an opening for a no-nonsense woman like yourself." Kirk smiled as Rand gave her a slip of paper with the number of the available room and the key code to get in (as well as a temporary Replicator card, for food and clothes.)

"Put me in security, that way I can legally stun and lock him up when I find him!" But she returned his smile and left.

"I like her." Kirk turned to Rand with a smile. Rand returned it.

"You just like her because she got rid of the Moaners- I mean, Monroe's." Rand blushed.

"I believe I'm the last one, Captain." Selek looked amused as well.

"Instructor Selek- are you sure you don't need to go to Sickbay? That limp hasn't gotten any better." Kirk dropped his acting Captain persona now that it was only the three of them. (And Barrows, who was waiting to escort Selek to his room.)

"It is fine, Captain, I'm old enough to know my limits. I suggest you try and learn your limits for yourself."

"I'll keep that in mind, here." Selek blinked at the piece of paper, and frowned.

"Sir, I believe these quarters are in with the officers."

"We've lost a lot of people, and unfortunately, we don't have the beds necessary for everyone, with the damage that's been done." Kirk stood and stretched. "The rooms closest to Sickbay have turned into private rooms for the less injured, and more than a few crew have doubled up with the younger cadets." Selek nodded. "Go get some sleep, it's been a long ten hours."

"What about you, Captain?"

"I need to stop in Sickbay for a bit, double check on everything there, and I've got a few things to check on everywhere else, for that matter, before I can turn in." Kirk gave a wry smile. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"I won't Captain." Jim saw the small smile in Selek's eyes, before he turned and left with the young woman.

"Rand, if you need to take a rest-"

"I'll rest when you do, sir." Rand absently touched her messy hair.

"Well, then let's take a five minute break before we go anywhere." Kirk strode over to the replicators. "Tea or coffee?"

"Coffee, black, one sugar."

"No cream?"

"At this point sir, even if I took it straight black I wouldn't wake up anymore than I already am." She struggled to fix her hair.

"I've been meaning to ask, is there a cultural significance to your hair style? It's pretty elaborate."

"My Grandmother was a big fan of the 1960's hairstyles, and she was from a culture where woman only wear their hair down and/or cut short if they're married. Believe or not, my mother had a worse style than I did." She shuddered, as if remembering something horrible.

"Was your grandmother human?"

"No, Grandmother was technically my mom's step-mother, but as my mom's mom died from radiation poisoning when she was little . . . you see where it went." Rand blushed. "Promise you won't tell? I can take people making fun of my hairstyle, but if I change it, my Grandmother would make my life difficult."

"I promise, but you might want to consider just wearing it in braids for the time being." Kirk sat down in front of her as she finished getting her hair down. "Do you sleep with it up like that?"

"No, that would be difficult, it's pretty easy to style, despite the way it looks." She blushed again. "Um . . . could you do me a favor?"

"After all the help you've given me today, sure."

"Can you start a braid? I can tell you how if you need it . . ."

"Let me get this straight- you can do what looks like a basket weave, but you can't braid your hair in a simple braid?" His amusement made her scowl.

"Sir, if-"

"I'm teasing, Rand. You've got to admit that's a little strange though." He got up, and Rand blinked up at him as he had her tilt her head back. Some part of his mind was yelling at him to do more than just braid her hair and make small talk, but the majority of him was just too tired to do anything but make a friend. "Joanna, you know, McCoy's daughter? She likes her hair braided. I was forced to learn how."

"What happened to her mother?"

"Divorced, it was pretty messy, but the harpy just wanted the money she could get, and McCoy only wanted Joanna. Thankfully, it worked out that way. McCoy would've been destroyed if he hadn't been able to keep Joanna." He gently pushed her head back up.

"He looked ready to collapse when he saw her. You'd have thought his heart had been ripped out." Rand agreed. Kirk gave a wry smile. That's what he had thought when he'd found McCoy, talking to one of the volunteers.

It had been more than a little disturbing to see the growling, snarky, sarcastic doctor he had known reduced to an exhausted man who looked ready to give up on life. Kirk had needed the memory erased from his head, so he hadn't come right out and told McCoy like he wanted to, instead he had dragged his friend so he could see for himself.

He knew McCoy, if he had tried to say Joanna was alright, he would have growled and snapped at him, not wanting to get his hopes up.

"There, you've got a lot of hair . . . ought to call you Rapunzel."

"Very funny, Captain." She stretched and stood up to pin up the braid into a bun. "Though, with your reputation, I ought to call you Casanova." Kirk couldn't help it, he laughed. (This woman and Uhura would get along just fine!)

He made no secret that he liked to flirt (and occasionally date or sleep with) with women- didn't even matter the species, either. Bones had suggested that it was related to the 'relationship' he'd had with Ruth when things went to hell on Tarsus IV- flirting was a comfort to Kirk, though Bones felt it was only a temporary patch.

But either way, the rumors of how many people (and their genders) were really exaggerated.

"I won't deny all the rumors, just the ones that aren't true, Yeoman." He stretched. "Besides, right now, the only lady I'm concerned about is the lovely _Enterprise_. Your virtue is safe with me . . . unless braiding your hair is considered foreplay in your Grandmother's culture. Then we might have an issue." He joked, earning a laugh (and a reassurance that 'no, it wasn't,') from Rand as they headed toward sickbay.

The jokes weren't that funny, but they were both tired and stressed, and any type of humor was better than none. Kirk's thoughts kept slipping to other topics as they walked.

Having Rand by his side reminded him of Ruth- he hadn't really thought about her much, between recovery and Starfleet. He kept in contact with most of his children- Todd, the toddler they had found had been adopted, his name changed, and so he couldn't find him, but Tilainya (Her species identified as K'lazz) and Rose (who was part shapeshifter) kept him updated on what was going on in their lives. Kevin, he could only keep an eye on through various channels, the Riley's (who Kirk was only related to through marriage) had been quick to hide him away from everyone, even his cousin. The only update he's gotten was a short note from them saying that Kevin had blocked out the memory, and they didn't want him seeing Kirk in case it brought it back. (That didn't stop him from watching from afar, though.) Chay the Andorian, who's real name they had never gotten, had also been out of his reach, though Archer knew where Chay was and had assured Kirk several times that he was fine and on track for Andorian development.

Tommy he could only monitor through science journals, his friend had forcibly pulled away, but Kirk had no doubts that Tommy was monitoring him from afar as well.

Ruth on the other hand . . . She'd come to San Francisco while he was a lt. Commander and trying to help McCoy deal with his upcoming divorce, and Kirk had thought they could try and start a new relationship.

They tried, but there was nothing there. Oh, they still loved each other, and they could still enjoy each other's company, but they could not have a workable relationship.

Ruth had put it like this: _"You want the stars, Kirk, more than you want me. You would never be happy on the ground, and as much as I like stars, I would never be happy being among them. I hate space travel, and I couldn't travel to you even if you needed me to . . . nor could I wait for you to come back down."_

It had hurt being told by the girl he loved that he didn't love her enough, but she was right. Worst of all, he knew it, too. He couldn't ask any girl he liked to wait for him as he put Starfleet and whichever ship or crew he had first. It wouldn't be right, or fair to the girl. So, he settled for flirting and casual dating after that. Half the time he ended up matchmaking instead, the girls too shy to do much but bat their eyes and engage him in the latest pop-culture. (Currently, according to the last girl he dated, they were watching a show called 'Star Trek' about a writer named Gene Roddenberry and the hassle he went through to try and create a Science fiction show that he dreamed up)

Rand, on the other hand, was clearly willing to throw barbs right back at him. He liked that in people he made friends with (Chekov was currently the exception, the only thing he threw back on was insults to Russia, or attempting to argue whether or not something was invented in Russia- bottom line anything Russia or even country related, Chekov would argue on, otherwise he took Kirk's (and sometimes Spock's or Scotty's) word as gospel) and Rand was capable of keeping her head in a crisis and doing what needed to be done without being told, professionally and efficiently.

"Captain? Paging Captain Casanova, are you in there?" He blinked, and realized he'd been staring at Rand.

"Oh, sorry about that- Rapunzel." (If she was going to call him Casanova, he was going to call her Rapunzel.) "Just thinking about what I have to do still."

"Sickbay, Bridge, and then you're going to bed, sir."

"Mm, No, I was actually thinking about promotions."

"Sir?"

"Everyone was efficient, those that knew what needed to be done stepped up to do it, and despite our long list of problems, everyone is still working efficiently. Even some of the cadets we have that are 1st and 2nd years are performing admirably. It's amazing given the situation." Kirk forced out thoughts of Ruth- he didn't know where she was anymore, and Rand was not her, but a crewmember and coworker he worked with. The ship and crew came first, not him. "So, I need to start thinking of recommendations for promotion. Sulu could go straight to Lieutenant, Junior grade at the very least. Scotty could finally be promoted to Lt. Commander, and Spock could be made a full Commander. You could be promoted even up to Ensign or Lieutenant, with that cool head and attitude of yours, and I think the admirality would uphold the field promotions."

"Oh- Wait, what about you? Shouldn't they uphold your promotion as well?"

"Depends, we managed to beam out Pike, but that was completely by luck, and I haven't had a chance to check on him yet. If he's capable of duty, they'll give him the _Enterprise_ back, and I'll return to being Tactical officer and XO. Actually, you'd be a pretty good Tactical officer yourself."

"Me? I'm officially at the bottom of the yeoman ladder, sir, even if I'm acting like the head." Rand objected, and Kirk grinned.

"My point exactly." They entered Sickbay, and Kirk saw the woman who was talking to Bones helping a young man sit up to sip some water. "How are things doing?"

"As well as can be expected. We've got a couple spare bio beds in case someone comes in that needs one, the nurses are either sleeping with- and by that I mean, in the same rooms- some of the less damaged patients, or on the spare bio beds." She helped the man back down. "Um, I wasn't properly introduced, I'm Nancy Peach . . . do you need me to get Nurse Chapel?"

"No, I just wanted to check in on everything here, Rand, could you," He waved at the area around, some of the patients were stirring. Both women nodded and moved to check on them. "How are you doing?" Kirk turned his attention to the man on the bed.

"I've been better- you're the acting captain, right?"

"Yes, I am- James Kirk."

"Gary Mitchell." The man gave a wry grin. "I was supposed to stay behind at the Academy and watch over the cadets."

"I was supposed to be a first officer and Nancy was supposed to be a civilian, I don't think any of us are doing what we're supposed to be doing right now." Kirk glanced at the chart, and tilted his head. He'd been in hospitals enough times to know how to read a chart.

"Yeah . . ." Mitchell shifted, and winced. "Captain, did an old Vulcan and little girl make it?"

"Yes, Instructor Selek and the girl he was carrying are fine, why?" Kirk turned his attention back to the man on the bed.

"Last thing I remember was I was supporting the old Vulcan as he was carrying the little girl to the shuttle. Couldn't remember if he made it or not." Mitchell stopped moving. "I think that's when I got hurt."

"Well, according to this you've temporarily lost your left kidney, some shrapnel tore into your side and tore it up." Kirk paused. "You saved Instructor Selek's life, did you know?"

"Did I? I was just helping him to the shuttle."

"Vulcan physiology is different from humans, their hearts are where our kidneys are, Ensign." Mitchell's eyes widened. Kirk gave him a grin, completely agreeing. They spent a couple minutes chatting, before Mitchell drifted off and Kirk went in to check on Pike.

* * *

><p>Pike was still out from surgery, but Kirk sank into the chair beside him. "Hey Chris, it's Jim, just letting you know that I might have scratched up the <em>Enterprise<em>, but it's still functional and taking us back to Earth. _Narada_'s been destroyed with Nero, thankfully, so maybe Dad and the rest of those who didn't make it out of the _Kelvin_ can rest a little easier." Kirk sighed.

Pike had been on a mission when Kirk had joined the Academy. He had returned in time to be labeled Kirk's advisor after Kirk had gotten into a fight with the blond-haired Finnegan (and a couple of the jerk's groupies), and Pike had broken it up. (Spock had been busy in the labs that day, and so hadn't been there to watch his back). Quite honestly, Kirk hadn't trusted Pike all that much. Pike occasionally looked at him like he was seeing a ghost, and Kirk had gotten enough of that from his mother.

The next time Kirk got into fight (again, Spock was busy elsewhere, otherwise he would have calmed Kirk down) Pike had made the mistake of bring up George Kirk. Kirk had lashed out at that, and it had ended with Pike daring him to do better than his father. They had barely spoken to each other for a couple months after that, the next time had been at the _Kelvin_ memorial service (Spock had thought it would be good for him to attend, but he had gone in civilian dress clothes, not his uniform). Pike and Kirk had stayed as everyone else had left, just looking at the memorial. Kirk hadn't said a word, just listened as Pike told him stories about the type of people his mother and father had been, and how George Kirk had been like a brother/mentor to him and Pike had never gotten the chance to pay him back.

After that, the two had steadily grown closer. Christopher Pike also mentored Spock at the same time, so occasionally all three of them would meet up to talk as they went through school.

When Selek was brought to the campus to teach, at Admiral Archer's suggestion, Pike had been the Captain that they selected to know the truth.

Kirk had been stunned when he learned that not only was he getting promoted to Commander (and Spock wasn't, though Pike had simply said that Spock wasn't quite ready for a higher command position yet) he was also being promoted to Pike's first officer.

He had initially disagreed, (despite Selek saying he was meant to be on the _Enterprise_) because he had thought that Pike had only done that because he owed George Kirk. It had come as a surprise when Admirals Barnett and Komak (the latter and Kirk didn't always see eye to eye, but they were professional about it) called him in and told him the promotion hadn't come based on Pike's recommendation, but Garrovick's recommendation that he become a commander and the admirals decision on where he should go.

Kirk shook his head to clear it from his all too frequent trips down memory lane. He was tired, but he couldn't rest just yet. He stood up. "You know what sir, I'm really glad you allowed me to pick half the cadets for this crew- Gaila was perfect on the bridge at the engineering station, completely professional, Chekov managed to plot a course with the absolute bare minimum information, Sulu's flying was spot on, and Uhura was right at home at the communication station. Every single one performed admirably . . . I wish you had gotten to see it, sir, you'd have loved it." Kirk glanced out the partition, making sure no one was too close. "And sir . . . you were right." Kirk gently squeezed the hand he had grabbed. "Wake up soon." He left, and Rand was waiting by the Sick bay door.

* * *

><p>The stop at the bridge took very little time, Giotto had everything under control, and Kirk took a few moments to respond to a couple messages from the surviving admirality, before exiting with Rand.<p>

"You going to follow me into my quarters to?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"If that's what it takes to make sure you sleep, then yes. I know your type- you'll find excuses not to sleep and continue to do work until you collapse or hurt someone." Rand informed him.

"When did you have time to talk to McCoy?"

"When I went to get the casualty list earlier, Captain." She replied smartly. Kirk just gave her a tired smile.

"Keep this up, I _will_ have to promote you to Lieutenant." He made a quick stop to talk to Spock, but found him already in a deep sleep. He sighed and made his brother more comfortable, absently squeezing his hand to offer comfort (and hopefully prevent nightmares), before exiting the room. Rand was still there. "Seriously?"

"Like I said, sir, I want to make sure you get some rest. You've got roughly 500 people to look out for, at least one of us needs to watch out for you. And since it's apparently McCoy's usual job, and he's not here, you'll have to deal with me."

"This has to count as insubordination . . ." But Kirk was privately agreeing with Rand- it was McCoy and Spock who usually badgered him into resting when he started to push his limits to the extreme, but both of them were out like a light. Which said something if the Vulcan had already fallen asleep. "Alright, you win, but I'm getting up about two hours early so I can check on engineering. And Rand . . . your punishment for insubordination is going to be being my acting yeoman for the next four or five days, so go to your quarters and get some sleep, understood?"

"Perfectly sir." Rand saluted and left. Kirk made it into his room and collapsed on the bed.

_Well, Dad, today could've gone better, but at least I got rid of the Romulans._ He fell asleep before he could finish thinking, but thankfully, his dreams were nightmare free.

* * *

><p><strong>Phew, Damnit, why does Kirk have to be such a talker? This chapter went a little long, and I humbly apologize for that, but Kirk wouldn't stop talking to people or thinking.<strong>

**Confession time: I honestly think that Rand's hairstyle in TOS looks good on her. Make fun of me if you want, but I honestly like the style. So, instead of bashing it or making it so that her hair ended up short in this universe (like several other people who've written Rand's character in have done) I decided to keep it. I just added in the culture aspect to it, because there are a few cultures here on good old earth where women aren't supposed to have their hair down, cut short or even shown to anyone unless they're married. (and then there are some cultures were the reverse is true)**

**Again, Kirk and Rand are just starting out as friends, yes they're teasing each other, and Rand's looking out for Kirk, and Kirk's allowing it, but Kirk is perfectly capable of recognizing potential friends- they're the ones capable of taking his personality and pitching right back. (Think about it, Spock, he likes to debate; Bones, with the grouchy personality, doesn't take no for an answer; Scotty likes to tease him; Uhura didn't shy away from a confrontation; Pike and him argued- and the list goes on.) So for Kirk, the quickest way to earn his respect/notice is to take what he dishes out and toss it right back at him- without trying to actually hurt. Rand's done that, and thus, he's impressed with her.**

**He's still a flirt, of course, wouldn't be Kirk if he didn't flirt, but he's not going to pursue the women on his ship for any sort of relationship beyond flirting and comraderie, especially right now with everyone spent from trying to cope with the **_**Narada**_**'s attack.**

**I had initially planned on killing Mitchell off, you know, so he could have really given his life in the line of duty, like Kirk noted in TOS 'Where No Man Has Gone Before', but then I decided to let him live. What roll he's going to play in future fics, I don't know, but some thing's telling me not to kill him off just yet.**

**And yes, Pike still ended up being a mentor to Kirk, though initially it was out of a debt to George Kirk, before the two got a chance to know each other.**

**So, any other possible questions? (I'm sure you all recognized the name of the woman in the beginning, while not everyone, including Kirk, likes her husband, a lot of people forget about her, so I thought I'd bring her in . . . Let me know if you want to see her again in the future, cause I already have an idea of what could happen with her.)**

**Next Chapter is in 3****rd**** person point of view- meaning you will see the events of the chapter from all the characters points of view.**


	10. Chapter 9, Enterprise Crew

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre created by G. Roddenberry.**

**Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and a FRIENDSHIP FIC, there is NO ROMANCE. (Despite the fact that Kirk is flirting, there is nothing going on between him or any of his crew or the civilians currently on board. It's just Kirk being Kirk.)**

**Also, I'm cutting back on Scotty and Chekov's accents a bit- they're really difficult to type all the time, and my word processor keeps trying to auto-correct them.**

* * *

><p>"<em>Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<em>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a _foreign/alien word_ will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"Yesterday brought the beginning, tomorrow brings the end, and somewhere in the middle we became the best of friends." ~Author Unknown<p>

* * *

><p>True Friendship- <em>Enterprise <em>Crew

Kirk was up and moving before Rand found him and forced him to eat. It took them an hour to finish ironing out any wrinkles on the current command chain now that everyone was getting their feet back under them, and Kirk spent a half hour with Spock while Rand went to check on a few things.

"You could have gotten killed, you know." Jim started conversationally, and Spock straightened to look at him. "And that is ignoring your rather . . . illogical move of trying to ram the _Narada_ with the _Jellyfish_."

"It seemed logical at the time." Spock replied, absently placing his hands behind his back. "There was a high probability for all of us, Jim, I merely . . . sought to keep the majority from being killed."

"The good of the many outweigh the good of the few or the one." Spock's eyebrow arched up. It sounded more like a quote. "Damnit . . ." Jim pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Jim?"

"It's nothing Spock, but I'm really convinced that you and Selek are far too similar for your own good."

"We are technically the same person." Spock was at a loss, he had no clue to what Jim was trying to say- at all. "Jim, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? You really have to ask?" Jim gave him a look. "Emotional human me is trying to figure out why my best friend apparently channeled my dad in a suicidal move."

"That would be incorrect . . . we both did what was best at the time to protect our fellow crewmembers." Spock objected, but a flash of intuition made him pause. "I was not trying to leave you, Jim. If there had been another way, I would have done so, and since Mr. Scott and Mr. Chekov were able to save me, on your orders, and I did not die, it would be illogical to dwell on what could have been."

"Perhaps, _T'hy'la_, but I'm human not Vulcan. I'm not a hundred percent logical all of the time." Spock simply reached out and placed a hand on his best-friend/brother's shoulder. Jim relaxed a little into the touch. They stood like that for a while, until Spock had to move to Science to check on everything there and Jim rejoined Rand to check over engineering (where Scotty had already started to check everything).

* * *

><p>McCoy woke up and blinked at the dog nose that was right in his vision. The puppy whined a little, tail wagging. McCoy's attempt to sit up was halted by the weight on his stomach- at some point during the night, Joanna had decided to lay on top of him. He smiled, once again thanking God and all the other higher powers up there that his daughter was alright.<p>

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to bask in that fact- he had a job to do. It took him about ten minutes to get ready. However, it took about twenty more minutes to get both Joanna and the puppy ready for the day.

The best he could come up with was to keep Joanna and the puppy in the CMO office as he worked. He didn't want to burden anyone else, and he especially didn't want to let her out of his sight.

"Jo, honey, I'm going to need you to stay in my office while I work, okay? Things are really busy and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Okay daddy, I'll play with Tibby." Joanna nodded. He'd managed to find a small Science blue dress, (that was still a couple sizes too big for her) and borrow a few hair-ties for her, and a leash for the puppy.

"Oh, Is that the puppy's name?"

"Uh-huh, short for 'Tiberius'." McCoy wondered what Jim would think of that- then again, he probably already knew.

Chapel and M'Benga were already working when they entered- he spotted the civilian volunteer sleeping on a spare biobed. "Status report?" Chapel came over to him.

"Everyone's still stable, Pike started to stir earlier, so he might wake up today. Who is-?"

"Chapel, this is my daughter, Joanna, Jo, this is Nurse Chapel." Joanna waved, suddenly shy. "She's going to be in the office while I work, training the puppy . . . I'd rather not have her too far out of my sight."

"Understandable, sir." Chapel nodded.

* * *

><p>Once Joanna was squared away in the office with Tibby the puppy, McCoy began to check on everyone, starting with Pike.<p>

Apparently, Pike hadn't just stirred that morning, he had actually woken up, and was now convinced he was healed enough to start moving.

"What do you think you're doing?" McCoy growled, and Pike froze in the act of trying to sit up.

Pike had woken up about an hour previously, and it had taken about ten minutes to remember who he was and where the heck this place was, with another thirty minutes for him to remember how he'd gotten hurt in the first place. He hadn't paged a nurse because he hadn't been in pain, he'd just been thinking.

Now though, he had to figure out why his legs weren't responding- he could still feel them, so he should be able to get them to move, right? He needed to start moving around and figuring out what had happened to his ship.

"Doctor McCoy, I need to find out what's going on with my ship."

"You need to stay still and rest! Your back and legs were burned and broken, you'll wreck the grafts we've done." McCoy forced him back down. "You're off duty for medical reasons, so don't try anything. Jim's got everything under control."

"I'd still like to know what happened." Pike persisted, knowing that whatever had happened wasn't good- he was off to the side, but he could still see the amount of casualties.

"I can get you that report later, right now, you need to sleep." Pike relented, and McCoy sighed. "I'll tell Jim you want to talk to him, but it might take him a bit to get down here."

* * *

><p>Uhura sighed as she made it to the Cafeteria for breakfast. She had helped out in the communication section for a while, but eventually had to admit defeat and had gone back to her room. Gaila had returned not long after she did, having gotten kicked out of the computer labs. Apparently, most of the crew were under the impression that Alpha shift deserved to be treated as heroes, a notion that none of Alpha shift had been able to correct.<p>

Gaila had insisted on sharing a bed at one point in the middle of the night- her Orion roommate had had two nightmares in a row, and Uhura had been too tired the second time Gaila poked her awake to refuse. Whatever the nightmares had been, they had made the Orion very concerned over whether or not Uhura had died in her sleep.

The only problem Uhura had with sharing a bed with Gaila was the fact Orions really liked to cuddle, and this morning she had woken (about 45 minutes before her alarm was set to go off) to Gaila's face buried in her shoulder, green arms wrapped around her waist and one green leg thrown across her. It had taken Uhura a good five minutes to get Gaila to let go, and then Gaila had fallen right _back_ to sleep, hogging her bed and blanket.

She loved having Gaila as a roommate, it could be quite entertaining at times, but she was never sharing a bed with her again unless there was absolutely no choice.

"Morning!" Uhura blinked as a Russian accent sat down in front of her. "How did you sleep?"

"No dreams, thankfully, I'm hoping for delayed Post-traumatic stress, that way I don't fall to pieces when I'm needed the most." Uhura admitted, and watched as Chekov's smile turned to a confused frown. She ended up coughing to hide her chuckle. "Graveyard humor, Chekov, it was just a morbid thought."

"Oh, Graweyard humor, it started in Siberia." Chekov nodded. Uhura heard someone groan.

"Not this _again_, Chekov, Russia _did not_ start everything that you claim it did." Sulu joined them. "I spent half of Beta shift arguing with him over who invented indoor plumbing. And it was the Romans, on that note." He added with a glare.

"Romans did not inwent the toilet, though." Sulu groaned and did a live head-desk, much to Uhura's amusement.

"Someone, kill me now, I'm _not_ doing this again."

"Yeh'd miss out on flying, Laddie, and we knew how much you'd hate that." Scotty joined them. Sulu shot him a wry grin. "We were nae introduced, Lass, I'm Montgomery Scott, Lieutenant and acting chief engineer." He stuck out a slightly oiled palm. "Oh, sorry about that, stopped by in engineering to make sure repairs were progressing." He took it back and used his napkin to wipe his hands.

"Nyota Uhura, I'm at communications. You know Gaila, I think, she's in engineering."

"Gaila . . . Orion lass with red hair?" Uhura nodded. "She's good, but she's better with computers, she was able to reprogram some of the engineering units that seized up." Scotty glanced around, frowning. Kirk should have been in here by now; he'd left Engineering before Scotty. "Have any of ye seen the Captain lately?"

"Not since yesterday. I hope he got some sleep . . ." Sulu frowned. "Maybe he's with Mr. Spock."

"No, Spock's in the science labs." Scotty objected. "He had to check to make sure there was nae to much damage."

"Vhat about McCoy?" Chekov offered, and Scotty offered him a wry grin.

"That's possible, but- Ah, there ye are!"

"Hey Scotty, what's up?" The Captain leaned against the table.

"Have you eaten yet?" Scotty hoped Kirk had- Scotty had seen a lot of things in Starfleet, seen a lot of people die, but his nightmares, with everything else mixed in, still contained skeletal children that stared at him, and they'd come back while he was sleeping. Scotty got over nightmares pretty quick, and they rarely happened two days in a row, but when he had one, he tended to fuss over whoever was in the dream with him until he was sure they were alright.

"First thing when I got up, before I started checking on everything." Jim grinned. "Relax, my Yeoman's already on my case about eating and sleeping- something about setting an example?- anyway, I just came to check on you guys and grab a snack- we have a meeting before shift."

"Aye sir." Kirk walked away, and Uhura turned to Scotty.

"Why does he call you Scotty?"

"It's a long story, he likes to give nicknames, though some are more obvious than others. He's been calling me that since we met. Just like he calls McCoy, Bones." He shrugged. "It's all in the tone of voice, really, nae the nicknames themselves. If he gives someone a potentially embarrassing nickname, he will nae call them that in public, unless he does nae like them all that much." Scotty began to scarf down his food and the others began to create small talk.

* * *

><p>Sulu finished his breakfast at the same time Uhura did, which was around the time Keenser and a couple other engineers came in and the room got a little louder. "Going my way?"<p>

"If you don't mind." Uhura followed him out.

"So . . . How'd you meet Kirk?" Sulu saw her blink.

"Huh?"

"There's a bet running of who met Kirk in the most unusual or embarrassing way- I met him when I went the wrong way to class, McCoy met him at a party, Chekov met him because Kirk literally pulled him out of a fight, Scotty met him while he was recovering from being sick, We don't know how Spock and Kirk actually met, but I bet it was awkward. I was wondering how you met him?"

"Believe it or not, at a bar." They entered the turbo lift. "It was a dare by some other girls. I knew he was in Starfleet and his name was Jim, but I didn't know his rank or position until classes started the next semester." Uhura glanced at him. "Is that the best opening topic you have?"

"Only one that I know for sure we have in common and that's not depressing." Sulu leaned back against the lift.

"Fair enough." Uhura nodded. "Especially since this meeting is going to be depressing as it is . . . we lost a lot of people."

* * *

><p>Sulu and Uhura were the first to arrive for the meeting, followed by Spock, McCoy and Kirk, Scotty and Chekov just on their heels.<p>

"Alright, Casualty lists have been sent to your accounts as have the list of Civilians on board. Mr. Giotto and the rest of security are currently monitoring the civilians that haven't volunteered anywhere, and so will be absent for the meeting. Mr. Scott, overview of engineering?" Uhura had no clue what half of things Scotty said were, though they sounded interesting with the emphasis his accent placed on them. Sulu went next, followed by Chekov, both of them covered the ship's status and how long it would take to get back.

Which unfortunately hadn't changed- Scotty had to make repairs to the structures in engineering before he could get to the impulse engines.

The situation in Sickbay was crowded but stable. Pike was already awake, but heavily drugged and unfit for duty, according to McCoy.

Spock then gave a report on crew efficiency and morale (which was actually higher than anyone expected it to be).

"Uhura?"

"Nothing new in communications, we're still sending out a request for aid, but everyone's focused on Earth for right now. It would take them a few days to get to us, anyway."

"I see, and what about Earth's situation?"

"Still experiencing aftershocks, the drill actually set off a chain reaction through North America and into the pacific. Had they drilled any farther the entire planet would be shaking. They've beamed out all the life-signs they could, but there are still people missing." Uhura paused, and then sighed. "The death toll is pretty high, and half of San Francisco is in the bay. The city is going to be uninhabitable for a while. They're working on finding a new place for the Academy. Or at least a temporary headquarters." She shifted away from the table, and Kirk could see her eyes start to darken.

"There's no denying we've lost a lot of people, but it would have been a lot worse, Uhura, if the _Narada_ had attacked and we'd been unprepared. Your finding Chekov and Sulu and coming to us helped prevent something worse from happening." Kirk pointed out, and Uhura nodded, brightening a little. "We can't change what happened, so let's focus on using what we've got." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Any questions?"

"_Da._ A couple, how could Nero trawel back in time? And how did you know about him?" Chekov had actually raised his hand. "Also, is there really another Spock?"

Kirk sighed, he was hoping that they wouldn't have remembered with everything that had been happening, but that was (apparently) too much to hope for.

"It's technically need to know information, but given that we faced down Nero yesterday, Yes, Nero did travel back in time. I don't know how he did it, but he did- however, by destroying the _Kelvin_ he altered history and created an alternate timeline."

"You mean, we're an alternate universe." Uhura blinked, that was not what she was expecting to hear. Kirk just gave her a wry smile.

"I had the same reaction. Anyway, Ambassador Spock went after Nero to stop him and was sucked back in time, but what were a few minutes to him was roughly 23 years to us." Kirk leaned back, studying the reactions of those around him- Bones and Spock were already aware of this. Scotty had known something was up but hadn't pushed for more details past 'Alternate Spock from future- are there still sandwiches?'. Sulu, Chekov and Uhura were looking at him in open curiosity. "Past two years we've been trying to prepare for a possible attack we knew nothing about. The fact that it's over is a little reassuring."

"So, you and Spock were still friends in the original timeline . . . how about the rest of us?"

"Calling it the 'original' timeline would be slightly inaccurate. With infinite possibilities and infinite choices that one makes, there is a possibility of more than just 'two' timelines." Spock corrected Sulu. "And it does not really matter what happened in that timeline, there are things that must be done in this timeline."

"Just curious."

"We were friends." They all glanced at Kirk, who wasn't quite looking at them. "Scott, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, Spock and Kirk; The seven of us served together, we shared good times, bad times, and everything in between, even when we went our separate ways, we still came back together to help one another out. We did things thought impossible." He blinked, and his blue eyes glittered. "But in that timeline, we didn't meet each other for another ten years. Things have been altered from whatever we were in that other timeline. There's no point trying to measure us by what we could have been, because the measure doesn't apply. I met all of you before I met the other Spock. Knowledge of that timeline didn't influence my decisions to talk to any of you." There was a moment of silence, as everyone tried to think about what Kirk was saying.

"What about after?" Uhura asked.

"I watched you a little closer than I had been, but if you hadn't been ready, I wouldn't have requested you be on the _Enterprise_." Kirk shrugged. "And Spock's right, what happened in that timeline doesn't change what's happening in this one- we've got more important issues to deal with right now." He added, and they all nodded, reluctantly dropping the topic at his tone. "However, afterwards, if you all wish to continue discussing the matter, I'm sure Mr. Spock would glad to explain his theories to you."

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><p><strong>Phew . . . okay, at the end they got off topic, but I have to poin<strong>**t out- they know alternate universes exist, and Nero flat out told the bridge that Kirk was in contact with someone from an alternate dimension (which Kirk doesn't deny), wouldn't you be curious if you learned that someone you knew had knowledge of what could have been? I would!**

**Gaila: We don't see much of her in the movie, nor do we know much about her, other than Uhura dislikes her taste in men, she has a fairly cheerful personality, might have been actually in love with Kirk, and probably got killed when the **_**Farragut**_** got destroyed. Heck, we don't know if she even had a last name, though it's possible that 'Gaila' was just it (As Kirk pointed out in the bar scene, some planets only had first names). However, there's no doubt in my mind that she and Uhura were as close as sisters- and I don't have a problem sharing a bed with my sisters when they have a nightmare, or with my best friend/sister-from-across-the-street when she spends the night (though she tends to kick).**

**Next Chapter . . . hmm, why should I spoil it? You'll just have to wait and see- but it does get away from the **_**Enterprise.**_


	11. Chapter 10, Interlude Earth

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre created by G. Roddenberry.**

**Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and a FRIENDSHIP FIC, there is NO ROMANCE. **

**Also, there may be a shift from present to past and then back again.**

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><p>"<em>Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<em>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a _foreign/alien word_ will be in a sentence."

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><p>"Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends." ~Shirley MacLaine<p>

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><p>True Friendship- Interlude Earth<p>

Roughly three terran days after the disaster, Admiral Archer was trying, and failing, to keep his head from falling to the desk. The Casualty lists were pretty high, they'd lost three admirals, six ships, the Space dock (which had been manned by 500 people), and the Academy (he didn't want to think about how many cadets didn't make it out) was pretty much wrecked along with half of San Francisco. He didn't even want to think about the actual number of enlisted they'd lost, or the civilians that had gotten caught in the crossfire.

He was getting too old for this. Way too old.

The _Porthos_ had been on its way back to Earth when the _Narada_ had attacked, and had arrived in time to see the _Enterprise_ follow the Romulan ship. Archer hadn't followed, focusing instead on Earth and the immediate issues of saving lives.

"'Pike's alive, but quite possibly crippled.'" Admiral Komak read, scowling at the report from the _Enterprise_. "'Repairs progressing, but could still use aid.' Well, don't we all!"

"Admiral Komak, calm yourself. _Enterprise_ was able to run the ship off, and put an end to a threat to the Federation." The Andorian Ambassador Shras gave a small smile. "You should be honored to have such warriors in your ranks."

"Doesn't change the fact Kirk ordered the _Enterprise_ to chase after a dangerous ship."

"You've read the reports, it was the logical thing to do." Ambassador Sarek stated, face blank. "Can you deny that Kirk acted in the interest of the Federation by destroying the _Narada_?"

"I'm more interested in what Nero said about Kirk and the _Enterprise_." The Trill Ambassador spoke up. "_Romulans_ telling bedtime stories about an _Earth _Captain? It's a different timeline, of course, but I know I speak on the behalf of my people in saying we want to see what this Kirk is capable of."

"As are the Andorians." Ambassador Shras agreed. "And, I imagine the Vulcans are already interested." He added, with a look at Sarek. "Your son follows your footsteps as an Ambassador in the Future, you must have been proud."

"Perhaps." Sarek gave a slight nod, putting Shras slightly off balance. "However, this has little bearing on our efforts of helping Earth."

"Quite right, if we can all focus back on the issue at hand?"

"My people are helping with the counseling needed." The Betazoid Ambassador spoke, folding his hands in his lap. "There is much grief and fear, but we are able to help those who wish to move forward. There are a few handfuls of humans who reject our help."

"Vulcan has a Space station we are willing to give as a temporary. It was meant for one of our colonies, but Earth has a greater need." Sarek spoke next.

"Andorian warriors are willing to help Starfleet, we shall patrol the border of the neutral zone in absence of the usual ships." Shras added.

"And the Trill are willing to help build. Have no fear about that." The Trill Ambassador smiled cheerfully. There was more talk of rebuilding efforts, where they should start, and how long it would take for the aftershocks to fade (at the least, a year, though that was pessimistic).

All in all, it went pretty well. With one incident at the end that left them all slightly off balance.

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><p>"<span>You're joking.<span>" Kirk looked like he had aged a decade, and there was a cut on his cheek that was healing.

"I can assure you, Captain Kirk, it is not a joke." Sarek informed him, Ambassador Shras looking amused.

"The Klingons have really offered their aide?" Kirk leaned back in his chair, looking thoughtful. "Well, I guess that makes sense."

"And how do you figure that, Kirk?" Archer studied the young man on the screen.

"The Romulan ship took out a fleet, we know that much for sure. The Klingons wouldn't take that lightly. The fact we managed to do so . . . well, they're big on honor in battle." Kirk sighed.

"You look terrible, Kirk, what happened?" Admiral Barnett asked.

"Accident in engineering, Lieutenant Scott's yelling at the man as we speak. With the exception of two very vocal civilians, that's been the only excitement we've had. Pike is still confined to Sickbay, Acting CMO McCoy is taking his duties very seriously." Kirk gave them all a wry grin. "On a separate note, most of the slightly injured are back on duty again, and the younger cadets are doing quite well, though we're pretty sure a couple of them are focusing on work to keep themselves from falling apart."

"Understood, Kirk." Barnett sighed. "We've called in the _Lexington_ and _Excaliber_ to help- but we might need you to divert to another space dock or base for repairs."

"All due respect, you're the closest we can get to- Vulcan does not have a Space Dock or base, and the nearest would be about three weeks away at our current speed, our sickbay isn't stocked for that amount of time." Kirk pointed out, and Barnett stopped Komak from saying anything as Kirk continued. "Alright if we drop off civilians and badly injured before we go? If I can get some people to replace crew, that would be even better- too many people want word on their families."

"We can do that, Captain, I gather some of your crew is about ready to start fighting?"

"We've got a small knot of discontent, spear-headed by a couple civilians, it's being dealt with, but I'd rather get them off ship before someone decides to shoot them out the air-lock." Kirk deadpanned, then glanced over his shoulder. "Nevermind, they've just gotten put into the brig."

"We'll leave you to it, Kirk, but be ready for a debrief when you get here, hopefully, by then we'll have something more concrete." Archer nodded.

"That, Admiral, would be wonderful. Good luck to all of you in the meantime, Ambassadors, Admirals. Kirk out." Kirk had given them all a nod before the screen cut out, but they could see his first officer approaching rapidly in the background.

Hopefully it, whatever 'it' was, would not be too serious. Now they had to figure out what to do with the Klingon's offer of aide.

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><p>On Earth, the commander in charge of Riverside shipyard had suddenly found herself trying to build and convert buildings into spare barracks. Riverside, Iowa was thankfully not anywhere near a major fault line, and thus escaped the worst of the quakes.<p>

Of course, in Winona Kirk's opinion, 'worst' was subjective.

Before she met (and fell in love with) George Kirk, she'd been fairly rigid with her life and thought fools were the ones that claimed to be in love. George had opened her up to a world of possibilities that she had never considered, but at the same time had left her wide open for heart break when he died.

Some days, she wanted to hate him for doing that to her.

She had tried to pick up her life, had fought tooth and nail to get to a point where she could hold her baby without bursting into tears and shoving him away. Post partum depression was something she had always thought as a myth- what woman would reject their own offspring?- until she had it.

Winona had tried the best she could to move on and patch up the shards of her life and that of her children's, but . . . it wasn't enough. No matter what she did, there was some gap that had appeared in between her and her children, and she couldn't bridge it. When Jim was nine, she gave up trying. She couldn't live without them, but she couldn't live with them, either.

Frank had been a friend of hers and George for years. She loved him, but not as much as she had loved George. Frank had a few rough edges to him, but he'd been willing to do his best to make it work. He accepted it when she left for Starfleet, leaving him with two children that didn't understand why their mother couldn't stay.

Frank didn't know how to deal with children. He wasn't an emotional, touchy-feely sort of guy, and father-hood had never been something he aspired to. He'd grown up with a workaholic dad and a mom that was constantly 'out' and so he and his siblings had been left to their own devices. So he did the same with her sons. So, when Jim had started acting out for attention, Winona and Frank had simply had no idea what to do, and, par for the course, they ignored it.

Winona could still remember the brief conversation with Frank, back when Jim had totaled the old car. Neither of them were capable of dealing with Jim, so they sent him off planet to her sister, who could probably do a much better job than either of them. (Right now, she could look back and damn herself for not reading the incident report more fully- her son had waited till the last minute to get out of the car, which explained why Frank had been rather short with her after they sent Jim off- but Frank hadn't known what to do or say.)

They still hadn't heard much from Sam other than the occasional note of 'I'm fine' that he'd only recently started to send, and Winona hoped that would change soon.

Anyway, when Winona finally did come back to earth, and was assigned to be in command of the shipyards, she finally got a face-full of what she had done, not only to her sons but to Frank as well- though he had been far more understanding. She didn't know how the hell she was going to make it up to either of her children, but now that the shadow of the _Narada_ no longer loomed in the picture of George she kept, she could start to think.

All commanders had heard about what happened, and Winona Kirk had broken down sobbing as the open wound on her heart finally started to heal.

She wasn't naïve enough to think Jim (or Sam) would ever forgive her completely, or open their arms the instant they saw her, but she knew she could finally face them without wanting to run. They'd be starting as strangers, surely, but she could accept that, and maybe they could slowly start healing their family. (In the end, she'd settle for being friendly and civil to each other.)

* * *

><p><strong>Uh, yeah, I didn't actually see that Klingon curveball coming . . . but it made sense.<strong>

**Right now, Romulans, Klingons and the Cardassian Empire are the three major threats to the federation. The Romulans are indirectly responsible for a Klingon fleet getting destroyed, and so the Klingons, who are already at 'barely tolerating', would see this as the Romulans attacking them.**

**Klingons may have stressed relations with the Federation, but they're willing to deal with them, a heck of a lot more than they're willing to deal with the Cardassian Empire. I imagine Nero's attack on them might have decreased their available resources pretty significantly- a fleet of ships could be anywhere from three, seven, or into the double digits in Star Trek terms. (It's used as a pretty broad term.)**

**As an entire planet wasn't destroyed, the Romulans aren't going to be eager to extend an olive branch, other than maybe not taking Nero's side of the conflict. As far as they're concerned, Nero did them a favor and weakened Starfleet and the Federation.**

**So, until they're both back on their feet, I could see the Klingons and Starfleet working together. And as Kirk and the **_**Enterprise**_** were able to defeat Nero, I imagine the Klingons would be very interested in meeting them.**

**Winona Kirk- I wasn't going to make her into a villain, or completely psychotic, for this fic- quite simply, We can see that she did try to pick herself up and move on- she wouldn't have remarried otherwise- but the ghost of her husband and the destruction of the **_**Kelvin**_** was simply too much for her to completely shake. Better people have been brought down by less. (Honestly, I think half the reason she stayed in Starfleet was because she was hoping to find the ship that killed her husband and get revenge.) I wasn't going to make Frank a villain either, because I don't think he knew exactly what he was getting into completely, and so his best effort was by not doing anything because they were Winona's children and he didn't know how to step in.**

**Basically, Winona's actions created a family of strangers. There's going to be a couple one shots on this theme in the future, but I figured I'd put in Winona here right now. (To Anonymous Reviewer 'web', who requested it, how'd I do?)**

**Note on Archer: JJ Abrams said that this Archer is the same Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise. The problem most people have with this claim is it would put Archer at 155 or so.**

**I'd just like to point out- with all the radiation, strange foods, and other stuff, isn't it possible that Archer was exposed or ate something that expanded his lifespan somehow? Other races (Vulcans for sure) are known to have longer life-spans than humans, so why wouldn't human life-spans end up getting extended as well?**

**Just something for you to ponder on.**

**Next up: I'm sorry, it's the end of the fic- but the beginning of a new adventure, and you'll get to see what happens to some of the support characters, as well as Ideas, I've mentioned.**


	12. Epilogue, Selek of Vulcan

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre created by G. Roddenberry.**

**Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and a FRIENDSHIP FIC, there is NO ROMANCE. As this is an AU, there will be more than few changes. You'll see for yourself in the chapter.**

**Also, there will be a shift from present to past and then back again. Please alert me if there isn't a clear change- recently I had trouble with the line breaks.**

* * *

><p>"<em>Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."<em>

"**Alien Language translated to standard**."

"Voice being listened to through a communicator."

'_Telepathic speech.'_

_Thoughts._

"Occasionally, a _foreign/alien word_ will be in a sentence."

* * *

><p>"Old friends are always best, unless you can catch a new one that's fit to make an old one out of." ~ <strong>Sarah Orne Jewett<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>True Friendship- Selek of Vulcan<strong>

_Stardate 2258_

It had taken three months to get something more than organized chaos. Throughout that time, Selek had helped when asked, but for the most part, he had simply watched. The new site for the Academy was now in Riverside, Iowa, and the buildings were mostly up. Now, at the Six month mark, they were finally going through with all the ceremonies to make all changes official.

Selek wore the traditional Vulcan garb as he sat with the Vulcan delegation. Joanna, temporarily separated from Tibby the beagle puppy, was being watched by Amanda. There were several other delegations in the room, but the group that drew the most stares was the Klingon delegation, standing just off to the side.

A temporary treaty and alliance had been formed, though nothing had been made 100 percent official, it was enough for the tenuous threads to start forming. In his timeline, this hadn't happened for about 40 more years. He knew things had changed, but it was entirely disconcerting to watch.

"The assembly calls James T. Kirk." Selek watched as Jim came forward, wearing the green dress uniform favored by command (that had been long abandoned in his timeline) as wearing gold on gold was considered rather garish.

Selek kept his eyes open as his young friend received (officially) the _Enterprise_ captaincy, and watched with a slightly bitter pain as his younger self and Scott came forward, Spock to become a commander and first officer, and Scotty to become a lt. commander and second officer. Selek allowed himself a slight smile at how uncomfortable Scott looked in the spot light, all but hiding behind Spock and Jim. There hadn't been an actual graduation ceremony for the senior cadets- in a way, this was it. There was a thunderous applause as the trio turned to face the assembly, and Selek heard two almost ear-piercing whistles that he recognized with ease- Uhura and Sulu were about thirty feet from where he was sitting.

The reception that followed gave him time to slip to the side and observe the changes in more detail. Uhura was chatting to a young Klingon delegate as they danced, Sulu was in a deep debate with Ambassador Shras's aide, Chekov and Scotty- they were over by the food and drinks.

There were races he knew that had been admitted to the federation later, in his timeline, he spotted two Ferengi chatting with an Orion and a Trill. The Orion Syndicate must have fallen much earlier in this timeline. Starfleet was much more diverse than he remembered.

More unsettling to him were the members of the Vulcan delegation. T'Pau had come to Earth for this ceremony, with the same regal bearing he always remembered her having. She was deep in conversation with an Elderly Betazoid. T'Pring had also come as T'Pau's aide, which contrasted sharply against the T'Pring of his timeline, who had never left Vulcan. She and his younger counterpart were standing together, and if he had been fully human he would have choked as he watched Spock lead her out onto the dance floor. McCoy was dancing with his daughter, to the amusement of a Trill delegate.

Selek glanced around the room. Archer was talking with some cadets- clearly regaling them with some story- Admirals and Ambassadors were mingling with Cadets and their families. It was all so different, but he couldn't help but think it was a little better than the reality he had left behind.

A small smile twitched his lips. It had taken two days, after the battle with Nero, for Sulu, Uhura and Chekov to realize that he was Spock from the alternate future. The trio had (rather sheepishly) shown up after alpha shift. He hadn't been able to turn them away, because he truthfully wanted to see them again.

Nothing much had been asked other than Nyota's point blank question of 'Are you the Ambassador Spock from an Alternate future?' He had expected more questions, but they had just accepted that, and asked if he wanted company- Chekov had brought a board game to play and they needed a fourth player. The trio had kept a running commentary of their lives and interests, but had never asked him any questions about their other selves, just how he had grown up.

Selek had asked when they had shown up the next day, and Sulu had quietly explained that they were curious, but they weren't going to ask, not when they were still technically strangers. It had touched Selek, Jim had not asked because of the brief mind-meld, Spock had- well, his younger self had no interest in his possible life beyond involvement with Nero, McCoy had only been interested in how he had gotten the surgical scars and his medical history, and Scotty had only asked if there were still sandwiches. They treated him as a friend, but had never asked about their other selves. Now Uhura, Sulu and Chekov were doing the same.

He hadn't been able to speak, but from their smiles, something of his gratitude had made it across.

With a soft exhale, Selek got up and moved to a small balcony. There was a slight chill in the Iowa air.

"Selek, how'd you find me?" Jim was leaning against the rail, grinning. "I thought this was a good spot." Selek didn't stop the chuckle.

"I'm afraid, old friend, that I am also seeking a hiding place, and this was the most logical spot." Jim gave a soft laugh.

"Fair enough. What's sent you into hiding?"

"I just wished for some air." Jim nodded, and glanced out to one of the fields that bordered the land. They stood like that for awhile.

"You know, there's a real old saying . . . 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' I've always thought it rather illogical . . . but I've never had a chance to test it." Jim didn't look at him.

" . . ." Selek glanced into the room, easily picking out the alternates of his friends throughout the crowd. "I must agree with the saying, Captain. In some ways, there is no difference between the people I knew and the ones I see here."

"We ship out in a week. A five year mission." Selek nodded, watching as Joanna charmed a Klingon Delegate. "What are your plans?"

" . . . I will return to Vulcan, perhaps take a teaching position in the Science Academy."

"No more diplomacy?"

"No . . . I think I'll stay out of it . . . let others do it." It was time for him to hang up his hat, his days of adventure were over. He'd let younger men take care of it.

"Watch us." Selek looked over at Kirk, whose blue eyes glinted with a mixture of steel and amusement. "I bet we can do better." It wasn't his James Kirk, but he felt the same sense of apprehensive eagerness that always accompanied a challenge.

"I will." _I know you will._ Things had changed, people had died who had lived, and people lived who had died. But at the same time . . . things were still the same.

Jim had the _Enterprise_, his younger self was his first officer, McCoy chief medical officer, and Sulu, Uhura, Chekov and Scotty had their places. Even Giotto and Chapel were the same.

Pike was promoted to Admiral and in a wheelchair, but had regained limited movement and would more than likely be able to walk with braces and a cane.

But this alternate reality had an Orion manning the engineering computer on the bridge, Rand had been promoted to lieutenant, and was Jim's secretary, and several civilians that had enlisted to continue to help- Stella Mudd, whom he'd never met save for an android copy, had joined Security on the Enterprise, (with the goal of eventually hunting her husband down and getting his signature on the divorce papers), M'Benga had enlisted to continue his internship with the hospital he had been working at destroyed, (It would have taken 12 years originally, before he made it to the Enterprise), The woman who had been killed by the salt monster on M-113 had joined Starfleet as an Archaeologist, he'd even seen Leila Kalomi's name on a list, as a botanist for Starfleet.

What role the Klingons would play was still unknown, but judging from the frequency of the talks, it would be to their benefit.

Yes, things had changed, but Selek wondered if it wasn't for the better.

He turned to Jim to say as much, when he got a good look at the expression on his face. His eyes were narrowed and studying an area of field.

"What is it?" His hand reached for his phaser, before he could stop it. Logical, given how many years he had spent following his Jim into one scrape or another, but rather embarrassing all the same.

Of course, Jim didn't say anything. Just reached out to grab his sleeve.

"Let's get inside . . . I think someone's out there that shouldn't be." Jim alerted security discretely.

Selek was able to stop him from checking out the disturbance himself- barely. Security teams didn't find anything.

And some things hadn't changed at all. He was going to have to warn the bridge crew before he left. Letting Kirk go anywhere without supervision (sometimes even _with_ supervision) was asking for their captain to get hurt and almost killed.

"Thrusters on full." He murmured to himself as he watched the seven of them laugh as Joanna waved her arms describing something the Klingon Delegate had told her. He was going to enjoy watching this crew's adventures.

**The End . . . for now.**

* * *

><p><strong>Phew. I thought since I started with Spock Prime, I'd end with him and his opinion of the changes. <strong>

**No notes this time, other than it'll be a while before I post the first one shot in this INAD verse of mine. (Note, 'INAD verse' will be posted on the summaries of all one shots in this AU I've created.)**

**Let's see . . . what one shot would you like to see first? (eventually, I'll start putting these polls on my profile page, but for the first one . . .)**

**A) A one shot on Klingon involvement**

**B) A one shot starring the Kirk family**

**C) A one shot with the reason Jim alerted security**

**D) A one shot starring Joanna**

**E) Don't care, ShivaVixen, just post something soon!**

**Please let me know- especially you people that have alerted this story! I accept anonymous reviews, so you don't even have to log in!**

**(Heck, you don't even have to type an entire word, just a letter.)**

**Thanks to: startrekgirl.m, chaoticmom, LuffyMarra, and Pen-Name-Kitsune-chan- the first two gave me some useful information, and the last two were the ones who gave the most reviews, which kept me going.**

**See you all around!**

**This is ShivaVixen, signing out: Live long and prosper!**

**(Sorry, I couldn't resist :D)**


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